Contributed by Adam Carlton

A United Nations (UN) human rights expert warned on 1 May, that the Israeli government’s plan to annex significant parts of the West Bank Palestinian territories and East Jerusalem, is going to undermine any prospect of a negotiated settlement and guarantee ongoing conflict.

The plan includes the Jordan Valley.

“Israel’s decision to unilaterally march ahead with the planned annexation on 1 July undermines human rights in the region, and would be a severe body blow to the rules-based international order,” said Michael Lynk, the UN special rapporteur.

The West Bank and other territories have been occupied since 1967.

Annexation contravenes the Charter of the UN, which member states agreed to in 1945, in order to address the lessons of World War Two.

The UN’s Security Council has condemned the annexation plan.

Michal Lynk, the planned annexation is being supported by the United States, and if it proceeds, what will be left, is bits of unconnected land, surrounded, divided by Israel, and with no connection to the outside world. They would in fact, become a series of concentration camps for Palestinians. Lynk called it a system of apartheid-based on unequal rights.

Under these conditions, human rights violations are bound to multiply. History has shown that the subjugation of a population brings about poverty, ruins the economy, and sets in stone, systematic discrimination. This sums up the modern history of the Palestinians.

There have been no talks between Israel and the Palestinian representatives since 20i4. Israeli governments have simply refused. They did not like who the Pslestinians chose as their representatives. Military pressure has mounted. Some 600,000 settlers have moved in and pushed out Palestinians in 230 settlements.

Something is gravely wrong, when in the name of the Jewish people, a state puts into effect a system of racial segregation and moves closer towards what can be described as, a policy of planned genocide.

All regimes playing the race card rely on promoting fear of the others. This is no exception.

Conflict between the two peoples is real. But this cannot be resolved without tackling the causes; the dispossession of a people, their determination to resist, and the hard line and inflexible response of the Israeli ruling elite.

An end to conflict will only be possible when these realities are admitted and addressed. Denial of the Palestinian self-determination is not going to work.

Israel’s government fighting allegations of serious corruption and trying to preserve its legitimacy, by digging in its heels over the Palestinians, to deflect attention by scapegoating a people.

This is not going to cower the Palestinians into submission. If brutality was going to work, it would have succeeded a long time ago. It has stiffened the resistance instead, and this round is not going to be any different.

Annexation will up the ante, and the chances of a negotiated settlement will become more remote. Both people will pay the price.

Flying in the face of world opinion, will only continue to isolate Israel more sureley than it has ever been isolated before.

None of this would be possible without the involvement of the United States. The Israeli government is highly dependent on its protector, which is moved, by Washington’s determination to re-secure its flagging influence in the Middle East and Persian Gulf. Israel is fast becoming its only its only reliable base for operations. The Palestinians are being used as pawns in a geopolitical chess game.

The expansionist ambitions of the Israeli elite and the determination of the United States to hold on to its position as the world’s dominant power coincide, to create support for the annexation of the West Bank East Jerusalem, and the Jordan Valley.

The early stages of putting the plan into effect, has already resulted in more human rights violations. Government supported Israeli settler occupiers are escalating the use of violence to push out Palestinians. Bombing raids on population centres have become more frequent. Collective punishment of a whole people continues. More are imprisoned and children targeted.

The European unions has followed the UN with its own condemnation. In the United Kingdom. 127 current and former cross-party members of parliament consigned a letter sent to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, calling on him to stand by international law” and ensure that a violation “will have severe consequences”.

“International law is crystal clear. The acquisition of territory through war is prohibited,” the letter said.

It continued to say, “If we are to prevent other states with territorial ambitions from copying Israeli illegal behaviour, the UK must take a lead in standing up to this aggression”.