UN rights investigator urges EU to punish any Israeli annexation in West Bank

In a statement on Friday, Michael Lynk, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory said the European bloc should back up its warnings against Israeli plans with “a decisive menu of counter-measures.”

He was apparently pointing to possible economic, trade or other sanctions against Tel Aviv. The EU has already said that the annexation must not go unchallenged. 

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has time and again announced that he would begin cabinet-level discussions for annexing more areas in the occupied West Bank on July 1, in accordance with US President Donald Trump's the so-called deal of the century.

Trump’s scheme, unveiled in January, largely gives in to Israel’s demands while creating a Palestinian state with limited control over its own security and borders, enshrining the occupied al-Quds as Israel’s “capital” and allowing the regime to annex settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley.

Lynk’s statement came just three days after some 1,080 lawmakers from 25 European countries warned that the annexation plans “will be fatal to the prospects of Israeli-Palestinian peace and will challenge the most basic norms guiding international relations.”

They also called for “commensurate consequences”, if Israeli regime, which has more than 400,000 settlers in the occupied West Bank, went ahead with annexation.

On June 18, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell also warned that the annexation would have "significant consequences" for bilateral ties between the bloc and Tel Aviv.

On Wednesday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, for his part, repeated his call on Israel to “abandon its annexation plans.”