UN human rights investigator Michael Lynk said Friday that Israeli settlements in the West Bank amount to a war crime, and called on the international community to make clear to Israel that its “unlawful occupation” cannot continue without a price.

The statements of the United Nations Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories came during a speech before a session of the Human Rights Council of the International Organization in Geneva.

“My conclusion is that the Israeli settlements amount to a war crime,” Lynk said. “I tell you that this finding obligates the international community to make clear to Israel that its illegal occupation and defiance of international law and opinion cannot continue without a price.”

Israel boycotted the session, as it neither recognizes nor cooperates with Lynk’s mandate.

Today, Friday, Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked said that the outpost of “Avitar” near the village of Beita in the city of Nablus (in the northern West Bank) will turn into a permanent settlement if it turns out that the lands on which it was built are non-owned, she said.

The Israeli government had reached an agreement with the settlers who established this outpost on Sabeeh Mountain in the lands of Beita, near Nablus, to evacuate them temporarily until the legal dimensions of turning the outpost into a permanent settlement are studied.

It is noteworthy that the settlers first established this outpost in 2013 and named it “Avitar,” in reference to a settler who was killed at the nearby Za’tara checkpoint.