Michael Lynk, UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory called Wednesday for the international community to enforce annexation provisions of international law against Israel to halt their occupation of the West Bank.

Lynk expressed concern about the continuing economic and social collapse of Gaza, stating:

The United Nations stated in 2012 that Gaza may well be unlivable by 2020. When electricity has been cut to five hours a day, when safe drinking water has almost disappeared, and when its economy is cratering before our eyes, then the state of unlivability is upon us…

The Israeli information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B’Tselem) has statistics from 2016 showing several West Bank cities receiving no more than 50 percent of the water necessary for daily consumption with some receiving as little as 3 percent. B’Tselem also reports that Israeli settler populations are continuing to rise both naturally as much as 4 percent and through relocation by as much as 25 percent.

Lynk also observed that the Israeli Knesset has adopted a number of laws in the last year signalling plans for more formal annexation. Lynk believes this is unambiguous in international law and argue:

The strict prohibition against annexation in international law applies not only to a formal declaration, but also to those acts of territorial appropriation by Israel that have been a cumulative part of its efforts to stake a future claim of formal sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory.

Israel does not have to formally take over administration of Palestine to have annexed Palestine in the eyes of international law. The law is meant to be prohibitive and preventative rather than a source of punishment, but unfortunately laws often require enforcement as noted by Lynk: “A deep-rooted problem at the heart of this conflict has not been lack of clarity of international law – in fact it is quite clear, but the unwillingness of the international community to enforce what it has proclaimed.” While Lynk does concede that Israel has rarely adhered to instructions from the international community, he argues that the international community has rarely required Israel to pay any meaningful price for non-compliance.

The Geneva Convention, Article 47 protects the violation of the human rights as defined under the convention of any citizens of occupied or annexed territories. At the same time, the international community has often declined to enforce annexation prohibitions even where human rights are involved as seen most recently in the Russian annexation of Crimea.