UAE concerned about Israel's continued confiscation of Palestinian territories

Geneva, (IINA) - The UAE has expressed concern over Israel’s continuous confiscation of Palestinian territories and encouragement of illegal settlements, both systematically and deliberately, which aborts and undermines any peaceful initiatives in the future, WAM reported.
This came in the UAE's speech before the 33rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, delivered by Obaid Salem Al-Za'abi, UAE Permanent Representative to United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, within the framework of a general dialogue regarding the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories since 1967.
Al-Za'abi added that the settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories are still continuing, as a recent report by the Middle East Quartet noted in June 2016, with the Israel announcing its plans to build more than 1,000 housing units in occupied East Jerusalem and 735 housing units in the occupied West Bank. It also unveiled several schemes to build and expand settlements in East Jerusalem, although this represents a war crime under international law.
According to the report, Israeli bulldozers still continue its operations, in which 79 houses have been demolished along with 22 facilities in the occupied West Bank during June and August of this year, making 2016 the year that witnessed the largest demolition of homes since 2006, with a total of 188 homes being destroyed.
In this regard, Al-Za'abi added that the report has failed to note that Israeli settlements were built on the ruins of demolished Palestinian homes for the benefit of entire families brought from other countries and continents to rebuild the usurped land.
He also renewed the UAE's stance, which deems Israeli settlements on the occupied Arab territories as illegal and constitute a major obstacle in the way of achieving a lasting and comprehensive peace in the region. He also called on all countries to claim the need to end the current settlement of Palestinian territories.
Al-Za'abi reaffirmed that a comprehensive, lasting, and just peace cannot be achieved without ending the occupation of Palestinian territories and the full withdrawal of Israel from all Arab territories occupied in 1967.