The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is illegal and must end “as quickly as possible”.
Nawaf Salam, president of the ICJ in The Hague, on Friday read the non-binding advisory opinion of the 15-judge panel on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.
The judges pointed to a list of policies, including building and expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, exploiting the region’s natural resources, annexing lands and imposing permanent control, and discriminatory policies against Palestinians. It is said to be in violation of international law.
The court said Israel has no right to sovereignty over the territories, interferes with the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and violates international laws against the forcible acquisition of land.
It said other countries “should not provide aid or assistance” in “maintaining” Israel’s presence in the region. According to a summary of the more than 80-page comments read by Salam, it said Israel should immediately halt settlement construction and demolish existing settlements.
Israel’s “abuse of its status as an occupying power,” the court said, “has made its presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory illegal.”
“The Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and their associated regime are established and maintained in violation of international law,” the court said.
The Court’s opinion was sought in a 2022 request by the United Nations General Assembly.
The ICJ, also known as the World Court, is the highest UN body that hears disputes between states.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in historic Palestine, which Palestinians want as a state, in the 1967 war. It then built settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and gradually expanded them. It also had settlements in Gaza before its withdrawal in 2005.
The UN and most of the international community consider Israel to have occupied the Palestinian territories.
‘The Drowned Moment’
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Maliki told reporters in The Hague that the ruling marked “a watershed moment for Palestine, for justice and international law.”
“With this historic judgment the ICJ fulfilled its legal and moral obligations. “All countries must now stand by their clear commitments: no aid, no assistance, no complicity, no money, no arms, no trade, nothing – no action of any kind to support Israel’s illegal occupation,” he said.
Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said the ruling was a “significant step” towards ending the occupation and achieving the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination, statehood and the right of return. .
The right of 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 their homes.
Mansoor said his team would examine the entire comment and “take apart every sentence.”
“We will consult with the United Nations and an army of friends from all corners of the world,” he said, “and we will draft a landmark resolution at the UN General Assembly”.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the comment as “fundamentally false” and one-sided.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement calling the verdict “the end of lies” that distorted the truth and insisted that “the Jewish people are not occupiers of their own land.”
Geoffrey Nice, a human rights barrister, told Al Jazeera that while the ICJ ruling was nonbinding, it would be difficult for world leaders to “ignore” it completely.
“It’s part of the legal system of ‘enough is enough,'” he said.
He added that it would be difficult for an interested, informed, and concerned public not to say, “It’s time for Israel to put its house in order.”
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said: “There is a lot of room for hope that this ruling will galvanize a movement in the West and the rest of the world, an international movement, to support more sanctions. Pressure on Western governments to put more pressure on Israel.
In a separate case brought by South Africa, the ICJ is considering allegations that Israel is committing genocide in its war on Gaza.
The court has already issued a preliminary ruling in the case, ordering Israel to prevent and punish incitement to genocide and increase humanitarian aid.
In May, the ICJ ordered Israel to halt its attack on Rafah, a town in southern Gaza, citing “grave danger” to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians seeking refuge there. But Israel continues to attack places like Gaza and Rafah in violation of the UN Court.
