UN report says Israeli occupation causes terror

Report: terrorists acts against Israel are inevitable consequence of Tel Aviv’s colonialism, apartheid, occupation.

GENEVA - A report commissioned by the United Nations says Palestinian terrorism is the "inevitable consequence" of Israeli occupation — a claim Israel rejected Tuesday as inflammatory.

The report — posted on the UN Human Rights Council's Web site — says that while Palestinian terrorist acts are deplorable, "they must be understood as being a painful but inevitable consequence of colonialism, apartheid or occupation."

The report accuses the Jewish state of acts and policies consistent with all three. Link

As long as there is occupation, there will be terrorism, says the author, John Dugard, an independent investigator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a South African lawyer who campaigned against apartheid in the 1980s.

Dugard says in the report that "common sense ... dictates that a distinction must be drawn between acts of mindless terror, such as acts committed by al-Qaida, and acts committed in the course of a war of national liberation against colonialism, apartheid or military occupation."

The report calls for an end to the Israeli occupation, citing the country's checkpoints and roadblocks restricting Palestinian movement, house demolitions and the "Judaization" of Jerusalem.

Until the occupation is ended, "peace cannot be expected, and violence will continue," the report says.

Israel's UN ambassador in Geneva rejected Dugard's analysis.

The 25-page report will be presented next month to the 47-nation rights council.

Dugard was appointed in 2001 as an unpaid expert to investigate only violations by the Israeli side.

Israel refused to allow Dugard to conduct a UN-mandated fact-finding mission on its Gaza offensive in 2006.