JERUSALEM (JTA) — Richard Falk, the special rapporteur of the United Nations on the Palestinians, told the U.N. Human Rights Council that Israel is committing ethnic cleansing in eastern Jerusalem.
Falk’s statements Monday to the Human Rights Council came as the council prepared a resolution condemning settlement building in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.
Falk called the council’s attention to what he said was the intensifying deterioration of human rights in eastern Jerusalem, pointing to the increasing number of Jews moving into homes in the area and Palestinians being expelled from their homes by courts after challenges to their property ownership.
This situation "can only be described in its cumulative impact as a form of ethnic cleansing," Falk said, according to Reuters.
Israel does not allow Falk to enter the country and does not deal with him in any way because of what it considers to be his biased mandate.
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