A/HRC/23/21 41. Already in July 1979, 12 years after the first illegal Israeli settlement of Kefar Ezyon was established in the West Bank, the report of the Security Council Commission established under resolution 446 (1979) to examine the situation relating to settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, arrived at similar findings, namely that the pattern of the settlement policy was causing “profound and irreversible changes of a geographical and demographic nature in those territories, including Jerusalem”, and that, in the implementation of its policy of settlements, Israel had “resorted to methods – often coercive and sometimes more subtle – that included the control of water resources, the seizure of private properties, the destruction of houses and the banishment of persons”, and ha “shown disregard for basic human rights, including in particular the right of the refugees to return to their homeland”.31 The Commission recommended, inter alia, that, as a first step, “Israel should be called upon to cease on an urgent basis the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the occupied territories. The question of the existing settlements would then have to be resolved”. 42. Almost 34 years later, and following another international fact-finding mission, Israel continues to flout international humanitarian law with total impunity, including the obligation as specified in article 49(6) of the fourth Geneva Convention not to transfer its population into the occupied territory. Israel’s commitment to the settlement enterprise was succinctly expressed decades ago by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, when he stated: In my opinion, what determines our fate for many generations to come are the Jewish settlements. Without underestimating the importance of war and military combat in the defense of our country, I think that, in establishing settlements in the Galilee, in the Negev, in the Golan Heights, in Judea and Samaria, in the Jordan Valley and in the Gaza Strip, I had the privilege as the chairman of the Settlement Affairs Ministers Committee and as the Defense Minister to decide about the establishing 230 settlements all over Israel […]. To me, the settlements are the most important thing.32 43. It is telling of Israel’s policy and intentions with regard to settlements that, after the General Assembly, in its resolution 67/19, decided to accord to Palestine non-member observer State status at the United Nations on 29 November 2012, Prime Minister Netanyahu authorized 3,000 new units in settlements. Israel’s population registry indicates that the number of settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, grew by 4.5 per cent in 2012 to an estimated total of 650,000 settlers. 44. In the course of Israel’s unrelenting settlement expansion, 6,676 residential units were approved in 2012, including 3,500 residential units intended for the controversial “E1” corridor between East Jerusalem and Maale Adumim. In its report of March 2013 to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, the Government of Palestine explained that construction in the Bab Ash-Shams/“E1” area “would complete the Israeli wedge of settlements that stretches from occupied East Jerusalem down to the Dead Sea, thus separating the northern from the southern West Bank, and destroying all hope for a free, sovereign and viable State of Palestine”.33 31 32 33 S/13450. Ariel Sharon – Life Story: A Biography, “1977 – 1982 Settlement Fever and the Peace with Egypt”, available from www.ariel-sharon-life-story.com/12-Ariel-Sharon-Biography-1977-1982-SettlementFever-and-the Peace-with-Egypt.shtml. Report of the Government of Palestine to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, 19 March 2013 (available from www.mopad.pna.ps/en/images/PDFs/SoP_AHLC%20Report_14%203%202013_Final%20Print.pdf), p. 13. 17