A United Nations human rights envoy has likened Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories to apartheid, and said its settlement policy amounted to colonialism.
UN Special Rapporteur Mr John Dugard said that "anyone who experienced apartheid has a sense of deja vu when visiting the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territories]."
Mr Dugard presented his findings on human rights in the Palestinian territories to the 47-nation council, which commissioned the report last year.
He warned Western states they would never rally support among developing nations for effective action against perceived abuses in Sudan's Darfur, Zimbabwe and Burma unless they tackled the plight of Palestinians.
"This places in danger the whole international human rights enterprise," he told the council, a Geneva-based watchdog.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva claimed Mr Dugard had resorted to "inflammatory and inciteful language" that did not contribute to a constructive dialogue on the Middle East question.
The 24-page document, which was posted on the council's website last month, catalogues a number of accusations against the Jewish state ranging from destruction of Palestinian houses to preferential treatment for Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
Citing the existence of separate residential areas for Jews and Palestinians in Hebron, as well as separate roads for Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank and Jordan Valley, he said Israel's actions clearly violated international conventions.
"Can it seriously be denied that such acts are committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over another racial group," Mr Dugard said.
"Settlers, largely unrestrained by the Israel Defence Forces, subject many Palestinians to a reign of terror - particularly in Hebron," he said.
The envoy said some 500,000 Israeli settlers were now living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories seized by Israel during the 1967 Middle East War. "Apartheid and colonialism are contrary to international law," he said.
Israel refused Mr Dugard permission to conduct a fact-finding mission on its much-criticised Gaza offensive last summer.
Agencies