Unprecedented in scale and impact, undermining the prospects for a viable Palestinian state
At the United Nations, Pakistan's envoy placed the ongoing transformation of the West Bank within the long arc of international law's most fundamental promises — the protection of civilians under occupation. What Asim Iftikhar described is not merely a political dispute but a question of whether the architecture of post-war humanitarian law retains any binding force when applied to the powerful. The warning he carried was as much geographic as moral: that the window for a viable, contiguous Palestinian state is closing not through negotiation, but through concrete and settlement.
- Pakistan's UN envoy delivered a formal indictment of Israeli West Bank policy, citing forced displacement, land seizures, and economic strangulation of Palestinian institutions as violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
- Israel has approved 102 new settlements in under four years, and 2025 recorded the highest number of settler attacks on Palestinians since UN documentation began in 2006 — a trajectory that is worsening, not stabilizing.
- The E-1 settlement project near East Jerusalem has emerged as a critical flashpoint, threatening to physically sever Palestinian territorial continuity and render a functional two-state solution geographically impossible.
- Pakistan is calling on influential nations to demand an immediate reversal of annexation policies, framing international accountability not as optional diplomacy but as the last viable mechanism to preserve the possibility of peace.
At the United Nations on Friday, Pakistan's permanent representative Asim Iftikhar delivered a pointed condemnation of Israeli policy in the occupied West Bank, arguing that what is unfolding there constitutes a systematic violation of international law. He cited forced Palestinian displacement, accelerating settlement construction, land confiscation, and the deliberate withholding of tax revenues from Palestinian authorities as evidence of a coordinated effort to convert de facto control into permanent, formal annexation.
The numbers Iftikhar presented are stark: 102 new settlements approved in just under four years, and 2025 marking the worst year for settler violence against Palestinians in nearly two decades of UN records. He described the use of administrative and legislative mechanisms to entrench Israeli control as violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention that are, in his words, unprecedented in both scale and impact.
Of particular concern is the E-1 settlement project near East Jerusalem, which Iftikhar warned would sever the geographic continuity of any future Palestinian state — reducing it not to a nation but to a collection of disconnected enclaves. A state that cannot hold together as territory, he implied, cannot hold together at all.
His central argument was unambiguous: an independent Palestinian state remains the only sustainable foundation for peace in the region. Every settlement built, every parcel seized, every family displaced moves the situation further from that possibility — not merely in principle, but in the physical reality of the land itself. He urged nations with influence over Israel to demand an immediate halt to these policies before the two-state solution becomes not a failed negotiation, but an impossibility written into the map.
At the United Nations on Friday, Pakistan's permanent representative took the floor to deliver a sharp indictment of Israeli policy in the West Bank. Asim Iftikhar did not mince words: what is happening there, he said, violates international law. The forced displacement of Palestinians is unacceptable. The attacks by Israeli settlers are intensifying. The withholding of tax revenues meant for Palestinian authorities is a deliberate attempt to cripple the Palestinian economy. And the international community, he argued, has a responsibility to make Israel answer for it.
The scale of what Iftikhar described is difficult to ignore. Israel has approved 102 new settlements in just under four years. Settlement expansion has accelerated sharply. Land confiscation mechanisms have been put in place. Administrative and legislative measures are being used, in his words, to transform what amounts to de facto annexation into formal, de jure control. The Fourth Geneva Convention—the international agreement that governs the treatment of civilians in occupied territory—is being violated, he said, and the violations are "unprecedented in scale and impact."
One project looms particularly large in Iftikhar's concerns: the E-1 settlement near East Jerusalem. This development, he warned, will make it impossible for Palestinians to have a geographically contiguous state—a state that is actually connected, not fragmented into isolated enclaves. That matters because a Palestinian state that cannot function as a unified territory cannot function as a state at all. The E-1 project is not a small expansion. It is, in effect, a line drawn through the possibility of Palestinian statehood.
The violence is also escalating. According to UN data cited by Pakistan, 2025 saw the highest number of settler attacks on Palestinians since the UN began documenting such incidents in 2006. Nearly two decades of records, and last year was the worst. This is not a static situation. It is deteriorating.
Iftikhar's core argument is straightforward: the only path to lasting peace in the Middle East is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Everything else—the settlements, the land seizures, the displacement, the economic pressure—is moving in the opposite direction. He called on influential nations to hold Israel accountable and to demand the immediate reversal of these policies. The systematic annexation must stop. The illegal settlements must stop. The demolitions and land seizures must stop. The forced displacement must stop. Without that reversal, he suggested, the two-state solution that has been the stated goal of international diplomacy for decades will become impossible—not as a matter of principle, but as a matter of geography and fact.
Notable Quotes
The systematic annexation of the occupied West Bank, expansion of illegal settlements, demolitions, land seizures, and forced displacement of Palestinians continue unabated, and this requires our attention.— Asim Iftikhar, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations
The only sustainable solution for lasting peace in the Middle East is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.— Asim Iftikhar
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
When Iftikhar says these actions violate international law, what specifically does he mean? What law?
The Fourth Geneva Convention. It's the agreement that protects civilians in occupied territory. It forbids forced displacement, mass land seizures, and the kind of systematic settlement that Israel is doing. It's not ambiguous—it's written down.
But why does Pakistan care so much? This is a Middle Eastern conflict.
Pakistan has always positioned itself as a voice for Muslim-majority nations at the UN. But more than that, they see this as a test of whether international law means anything at all. If the Fourth Geneva Convention can be violated with impunity, what's the point of having it?
The E-1 project—why is that the line in the sand?
Because it's not just another settlement. It physically cuts the West Bank in half. If it's built, you can't have a Palestinian state that's actually connected. You'd have fragments. That's not a state, that's a cage.
And the 102 new settlements in four years—is that accelerating?
Yes. Iftikhar said expansion has "accelerated sharply." The pace is picking up, not slowing down. That's the trajectory he's warning about.
What does withholding tax revenues actually do?
It starves the Palestinian Authority of money. They can't pay teachers, police, hospitals. It's economic strangulation dressed up as administrative policy.
So what happens next? Does this UN statement change anything?
Probably not immediately. But it's on the record. It's part of building a case that this is systematic, documented, and undeniable. Whether that leads to actual accountability—that's the question everyone's asking.