Two former heads of government from the Elders group of international figures founded by Nelson Mandela on Friday warned of the potential disappearance of the Palestinian territories and called for an end to what they called Israeli “impunity”.
The call from former Ireland president Mary Robinson and former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark comes after they visited Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, Jordan and Lebanon.
They said in a statement that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was seeking “to make Palestine disappear physically, economically, culturally and politically”.
Speaking to journalists in Jerusalem on Thursday, they said the international community must do more to end Israeli “impunity” in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, which Palestinians seek as the future capital of a sovereign state.
“I think if we were to summarise the key message that we’ve heard across civil society, both in the West Bank and here, as to what are they looking for, it’s accountability and no impunity”, said Clark.
Robinson said she was “ashamed” that the European Union had not taken a firmer stance on the issue, calling for Brussels to suspend the trade component of its association agreement with Israel and to ban the trade of products from Israeli settlements.
The two leaders said they had observed a severe deterioration of the situation in the West Bank since a previous mission in 2023.
The two former leaders warned that continued settlement expansion would result in “Palestine disappearing before our eyes”.
Since taking office, Netanyahu’s government has approved the establishment of 102 settlements in the West Bank, according to Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now.
And since the start of the Gaza war in 2023, the United Nations has reported a sharp rise in settler violence, while some Israeli ministers continue to call for the annexation of all or part of the occupied West Bank.
Excluding east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, among some three million Palestinians.
All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.
During their visit, the two former leaders met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. “We disagreed on a number of points”, said Robinson.
Meanwhile, about 50 people, including doctors, trade unionists and pro-Palestinian activists, gathered outside France’s foreign ministry in Paris on Thursday to call for the release of a Gaza hospital director who has been held since December 2024.
“Free Dr Abu Safiya”, chanted the demonstrators at the protest organised by hospital unions, among them Patrick Pelloux, the high-profile head of France’s emergency doctor association.
It is the latest call for the release of Hussam Abu Safiya, a pediatrician and director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital, who has reportedly suffered torture and life-threatening injuries in detention.
United Nations experts, the World Health Organisation and Amnesty International have urged Israel to set him free.
Israel has said his detention is “lawful” and rejected reports that he suffered a life-threatening condition.
