Both Israel and Palestine have failed to prosecute war crimes, according to a report [text, DOC] presented Monday to the Human Rights Council [official website]. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein [official profile] submitted the report, reviewing the compliance of Israel and Palestine with recommendations made by the Council dating back to 2009. Since 2009, the Council has made more than 900 recommendations aimed at improving the human rights circumstances existing in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The report reviewed the status of 773 such recommendations. The commissioner raised concerns over the impunity experienced in the Occupied Palestinian Territory for abuses of international humanitarian and human rights law. Zeid condemned both Israel and Palestine for “woefully inadequate” measures taken to hold wrongdoers accountable for violations of international law, some violations of which may amount to war crimes. The report found that the overall full implementation rate to be .4 per cent by Israel and 1.3 per cent by Palestine. The International full implementation rate is 17.9 per cent.

Earlier this month Human Rights Watch alleged that Israel has occupied the West Bank through human rights abuses for the past fifty-years [JURIST report]. In May the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights voiced concern [JURIST report] over the treatment of hunger striking Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. In April the UN Secretary-General, expressed his discontent [JURIST report] with Israel’s latest decision to build settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and repeated his previous calls for a two-state solution to resolve the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In March Israel’s Security Cabinet voted unanimously to approve the first settlement in the West Bank in more than 20 years [JURIST report].