(JTA) – At a U.N. Security Council forum debate on Israeli settlements, human rights groups slammed Israel’s expansion in the West Bank and called on the international community to take action against what they called the occupation of Palestinian lands.

The three speakers at the Friday meeting in New York on the topic of “Illegal Israeli Settlements: Obstacles to Peace and the Two-State Solution” were representatives of the left-wing group Americans for Peace Now and the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, as well as a law professor from the Free University of Brussels. Malaysia, Egypt, Senegal, Angola and Venezuela organized the meeting.

Lara Friedman, director of policy and government relations of Americans for Peace Now, said actions by Israel threatened its character as a democracy and criticized settlement expansion, a significant portion of which she called “illegal growth.” Friedman said settlement expansion “will lead inevitably to permanent occupation.”

Hagai El-Ad, executive director of B’Tselem, criticized the international community’s failure to stop Israel’s occupation, which he called “a legal guise for organized state violence.” He said the Security Council has “a moral responsibility” to take action to end the occupation.

Francois Dubuisson, an expert in international law at the Free University, called for an international boycott of Israel’s settlements and the implementation of measures against foreign companies that invest in them.

Following the three speakers, representatives from the Security Council member states spoke. U.S. envoy David Pressman said Washington was “deeply concerned about continued settlement activity,” which he called “corrosive to the cause of peace.” Pressman also condemned Palestinian incitement to terrorism, citing a shooting attack last week in Jerusalem that killed two Israelis.

The event came a day after Israeli and U.S. politicians, along with Jewish groups, slammed a UNESCO resolution that ignored Jewish ties to Jerusalem’s Old City.