UN condemns confrontation in occupied West Financial institution as ‘appalling and emblematic of the dehumanisation of Palestinians’.
Printed On 9 Might 2026
A Palestinian household within the occupied West Financial institution has been compelled by Israeli settlers, reportedly underneath navy safety, to dig up their father’s grave and rebury him, which the United Nations is condemning as “appalling and dehumanising”.
Eighty-year-old Hussein Asasa died of pure causes on Friday and was buried shortly after in a cemetery in Asasa village close to Jenin.
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His son, Mohammed, mentioned the burial had been coordinated upfront with Israeli safety forces, which supplied all needed permits.
Nonetheless, shortly after the burial, settlers threatened the Asasa household, ordering them to exhume the physique, claiming it had been buried on land that shaped a part of an Israeli settlement. Underneath worldwide legislation, such settlements are thought of unlawful and aren’t recognised as Israeli territory.
“They mentioned the land was for settlement and that burial was not allowed. We instructed them that that is the village’s cemetery, not a part of the settlement,” Mohammed Asasa mentioned.
The household was left with no alternative however to adjust to the settlers’ calls for after they threatened to make use of a bulldozer to exhume the physique themselves.
In accordance with the Palestinian information company Wafa, Israeli troopers had been current in the course of the confrontation and likewise pressured the household to bury their liked one elsewhere.
“We discovered that they [the settlers] already dug the grave and reached the physique,” Asasa mentioned.
“We continued digging and obtained the physique and buried him in one other cemetery.”
The Israeli navy has denied giving reburial directions to the household, saying troopers had been despatched to the world after receiving experiences of a confrontation involving settlers. The navy mentioned troopers confiscated digging instruments from the settlers and remained on the scene to “forestall additional friction”.
The UN Human Rights Workplace condemned what occurred.
“That is appalling and emblematic of the dehumanisation of Palestinians that we see unfolding throughout the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories). It spares nobody, lifeless or alive,” mentioned Ajith Sunghay, head of the OHCHR Palestinian workplace.
Rise in settler violence
Assaults by settlers have surged since Israel launched its genocidal struggle on Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023.
On Friday, settlers carried out a number of assaults throughout the occupied West Financial institution, attacking a baby whereas setting properties and automobiles ablaze.
In February, Amnesty Worldwide warned that world impunity was fuelling Israel’s unlawful annexation of the occupied West Financial institution – territory thought of essential for any future Palestinian state.
The human rights organisation accused Israel of “overtly” increasing its unlawful settlements.
