WATCH LIVE: UNHRC debates boycotting Israeli settlements

Four of the resolutions, including one that calls on Israel to return the Golan Heights to Syria, have already been posted on the UNHRC website.

UNHRC debates boycotting Israeli settlements
The UN Human Rights Council was debating on Monday a resolution that, in its initial draft, called on its member states to boycott Jewish communities over the pre-1967 lines in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

The resolution would include halting the exportation of products to UN member states as well as creating a database of all Israeli businesses over the pre-1967 lines.

This is one of five anti-Israel resolutions that the UNHRC in Geneva will discuss as part of its 31st session that ends March 24.
Four of the resolutions, including one that calls on Israel to return the Golan Heights to Syria, have already been posted on the UNHRC website. The fifth one on the topic of settlements has yet to be published, however the nongovernmental group UN Watch posted a draft of the resolution.
It urges all states “to ensure that they are not taking actions that either recognize or assist the expansion of settlements or construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem.”
The five resolutions on Israel and the Palestinians, filed by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, speak of Israel as the aggressor and the Palestinians as the victim.
The resolution draft on the settlements called on Israel to reverse its settlement policy in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. New settlers should not be allowed to move to the West Bank nor should natural growth be permissible, the resolution states.
It adds that the UNHRC did not recognize the Israeli status of “state land” in the West Bank and calls on it to stop expropriating Palestinian property and to stop dumping “waste materials in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and the occupied Syrian Golan.”
Any construction plans for the unbuilt area of the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement, known as E-1, should be discarded, and “all [business] operations that aid in the establishment or maintenance of settlements” should be suspended, it says.
In addition, it stipulates that the database on settlement businesses should be updated annually.
Another resolution calls on Israel to halt its demolitions of unauthorized Palestinian structures and homes, particularly in the South Hebron Hills, the Jordan Valley and the areas around Jerusalem. It also says Israel should “facilitate the return of those Palestinian communities already subjected to forcible transfer or eviction to their original dwellings and to ensure adequate housing.”
The UNHRC on Monday will also hear reports on Israeli actions over the pre-1967 lines compiled by the UN secretary- general and the high commissioner for human rights.
Gil Hoffman contributed to this report.