The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful. And the Court orders that the occupation should come to an end “as rapidly as possible”.
This was contained in the judgment delivered by President of the ICJ, Nawaf Salam, in The Hague.
Salam read out the nonbinding advisory opinion issued by the 15-judge panel on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory on Friday.
The judges pointed to a wide list of policies – including the building and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, use of the area’s natural resources, the annexation and imposition of permanent control over lands and discriminatory policies against Palestinians – all of which it said violated international law.
The court said Israel has no right to sovereignty of the territories. Therefore, is violating international laws against acquiring territory by force. And, it is impeding Palestinians’ right to self-determination.
The court stated that said other nations were obliged not to “render aid or assistance in maintaining” Israel’s presence in the territory. It maintained that Israel must end settlement construction immediately and existing settlements must be removed. This was the summary of the more than 80-page opinion read out by Salam.
The Court has also said, “Israel’s “abuse of its status as the occupying power” renders its “presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful.”
“Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established. And they are being maintained in violation of international law,” the court said.
The court’s opinion was sought in a 2022 request from the United Nations General Assembly.
The ICJ, also known as the World Court, is the highest UN body for hearing disputes between states.
Recall that Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem – areas of historic Palestine that the Palestinians want for a State – in a 1967 war. It has since built settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and steadily expanded them. It also had settlements in Gaza before a 2005 withdrawal.
The UN and the vast majority of the international community consider the Palestinian territory as Israeli-occupied.
Reacting to the judgment, the Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Maliki told reporters in The Hague that the ruling signaled a “watershed moment for Palestine. For justice and for international law”.
He said, “The ICJ fulfilled its legal and moral duties with this historic ruling. All States must now uphold their clear obligations. No aid, no assistance, no complicity, no money, no arms, no trade, no nothing. And no actions of any kind to support Israel’s illegal occupation.”
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, described the ruling as a “significant step” in the direction of ending the occupation and attaining the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination, statehood and the right of return.
“The right to return is a demand that Palestinians who were forced from their homes in the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 Arab-Israeli war be allowed to return to them.
Mansour said his team would study the entire opinion and “dissect every sentence”.
“We will consult with an army of friends at the United Nations and in all corners of the globe,” he said. Adding that, “We will produce a masterpiece of a resolution” at the UN General Assembly.
On their own side, the Israeli’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the opinion as “fundamentally wrong” and one-sided.
In his reaction, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement in which it called the ruling a “decision of lies”. A decision that distorted the truth and asserted that “the Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land”.
A human rights barrister, Jeffrey Nice, told Al Jazeera that it will be hard for world leaders to completely “disregard” the ICJ ruling, even though it is nonbinding.
“This is one part of the legal system saying enough is enough,” he said.
Nice stated that it would also be “difficult for the interested, informed, concerned public not to say, ‘It’s time Israel put its house in order.”
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, expressed optimism at the ruling. He said, “There is a lot of room for hope that this ruling will support a movement. An international movement, across the board in the West and elsewhere in the world in favour of more sanctions. More pressure on Western Governments to put more pressure on Israel.”
source: Al Jazeera and News Agencies
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