\"Israeli\" occupation resembles apartheid, UN Report

Source: Ynetnews & AP, 22-2-2007
\r\nIndependent report commissioned by UN compares "Israel`s" actions in West Bank, Gaza to apartheid South Africa. Charges draw angry rebukes from "Israel"
\r\nAn independent report commissioned by the United Nations compares "Israel`s" actions in the West Bank and Gaza to apartheid South Africa - charges that drew angry rebukes from "Israel" and were sure to revive charges that the UN Human Rights Council is biased against the Jewish state.
\r\nThe report by John Dugard, independent investigator on the "Israeli"-Palestinian conflict for the council, is to be presented next month, but it has been posted on the body`s Web site. In it, Dugard, a South African lawyer who campaigned against apartheid in the 1980s, says "`Israel`s` laws and practices in the (Palestinian territories) certainly resemble aspects of apartheid."
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\r\nThe 24-page report catalogues a number of accusations against the Jewish state ranging from restrictions on Palestinian movement, house demolitions and preferential treatment given to Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
\r\n"Can it seriously be denied that the purpose of such action is to establish and maintain domination by one racial group - Jews (Zionists) - over another racial group - Palestinians - and systematically oppress them?" he asks.
\r\n"Israel" claims it aims mainly to prevent Palestinian self-sacrifice bombings and other attacks that have killed more than 1,000 "Israelis" in the past six years, and officials note that violence broke out in 2000 after "Israel`s" proposal to pull out of the vast majority of the West Bank and Gaza in exchange for peace was rejected.
\r\nIts ambassador in Geneva criticized Dugard for directing attacks only at the Jewish state. "Any conclusions he may draw are therefore fundamentally flawed and purposely biased," said Yitzhak Levanon.
\r\n`Residents live in fear of settler terror`
\r\nThe report will be presented next month at the 47-nation rights council`s first session of the year. The new body has been widely criticized - even by its founder, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan - for only censuring one government in the world, "Israel`s", over alleged abuses.
\r\nDugard`s report accuses "Israel" of "terror" by F16 fighter jets setting off sonic booms above residential areas. In the West Bank "residents live in fear of settler terror."
\r\nHe says it is "grossly inaccurate" to say "Israel`s" 2005 removal of settlers and soldiers from Gaza constituted an end to its occupation of that territory, captured from Egypt in the 1967 war. "`Israel` retained control of Gaza`s air space, sea space and external borders, and the border crossings," he writes. "Gaza became a sealed off, imprisoned and occupied territory."
\r\nWar crimes have been committed by both sides, he says: "This applies to Palestinians who fire Qassam rockets into `Israel`; and more so to members of the `Israeli` Army who have committed such crimes on a much greater scale."
\r\nDugard was appointed in 2001 as an unpaid expert by the now-defunct UN Human Rights Commission to investigate only violations by the "Israeli" side, prompting "Israel" and the United States to dismiss his reports as one-sided. "Israel" refused to allow him to conduct a fact-finding mission on its Gaza offensive last summer.\r\n