The top Palestinian diplomat in Canada says the Canadian government should not have boycotted a United Nations conference that harshly criticized Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Sam Hamad says Canada should have attended this week’s conference examining the Fourth Geneva Convention, which sets out the rules of war and military occupation.
On Wednesday, some 126 countries out of 196 parties to the convention adopted a resolution saying Israel’s construction of settlements does not conform to its international legal obligations as an occupying power.
Previous UN criticism of ‘creeping annexation’
This follows a United Nations report in January 2013 which called Israel’s policy of expanding settlements “creeping annexation” which clearly violates the human rights of Palestinians. That report called on Israel to immediately stop the practice.
The current Canadian government is an unequivocal supporter of Israel. Canada’s foreign minister said he stayed away from this week’s meeting to avoid lending credibility to a process he called one-sided and politicized.
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