No accountability for Israel's aggressions: UN Security Council heard

New York: Israel's policies towards its occupied neighbour, Palestine, fall short of human rights and are a violation of international law and of UN resolutions, Daniel Levy, president of US/Middle East Project told the UN Security Council.

Why Israel adopts such policies is that no tangible cost or consequence is attached with the country, he said. Levy urged the Council Members to postulate the gravity of Israel is going scot-free for its action where the accountability for the inhuman actions is set to be the core understandings that should guide the peace process forward.

He said a positive change in the long battling rift between Israel and Palestine is not possible as long as Israel continue to be met with impunity for its unlawful and peace negating politics.

Levy also voiced for the legitimacy of the Palestinian Liberation Organization as a fully representative, inclusive and by extension better able to demonstrate strategic agency and to negotiate.

"Palestinians have a right to elect representatives to their national institutions. That requires a Palestinian leadership decision, as well as supportive, not preventive, steps by Israel and the International community.

"We also cannot ignore or condone when existing Palestinian self-governing authorities on the ground with their limited mandate repress their own people."

Palestinian politician, activist, and scholar Hanan Ashrawi told the ambassadors that everything must be viewed in the context of occupation.

The Security Council's inability to assert its authority, Ashrawi said, has allowed "this injustice to become a perpetual tragic, human modern political and legal travesty."

She discounted talk of confidence-building between Israel and the Palestinians as "there can be very little confidence under occupation.