THE HAGUE (LifeSiteNews) — The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest court serving the United Nations, ruled Friday that Israel is legally obligated to end its 57-year military occupation of internationally recognized Palestinian territory as rapidly as possible, evacuate hundreds of thousands of Jewish colonizers from settlements, and pay reparations to all Palestinians who have suffered injury or loss of land or property.
This non-binding 80-page legal opinion also judges that UN member states are obligated to “not recognize as legal” the situation resulting from Israel’s illegal occupation or “render aid or assistance” to Israel in maintaining the situation. Furthermore, the UN, especially the General Assembly and Security Council, should strive to consider and implement the most effective means for bringing an end to the unlawful Israeli occupation of Palestine “as rapidly as possible.”
The hearing for this case took place last February with an overwhelming number of testifying nations (45), along with three organizations, speaking against the Israeli government with only four defending the ongoing occupation (United States, U.K., Hungary and Fiji).
READ: Israel’s occupation of Palestine is ‘existentially illegal,’ dozens of nations tell World Court
With the ongoing massive destruction and bloodshed of innocent women, children and men in Gaza continuing in the background, Catholic, Orthodox and other Christian authorities in the Middle East, as well as enormous majorities of national governments across the world, have long judged this occupation to be the “root” injustice of the ongoing conflict between the Israeli occupiers and the occupied Palestinian people.
READ: How do Christians in the Holy Land understand the Israeli occupation of Palestine?
This hearing and subsequent judgment were initiated by a December 2022 U.N. General Assembly resolution requesting the ICJ’s opinion regarding the legal consequences of Israel’s continued “occupation, settlement and annexation” of Palestinian territory.
As a mere advisory opinion, it is not legally binding and cannot oblige national governments to act. But it’s legal and moral authority can significantly impact the policies of nations around the world.
Since 1967, Israel has built 163 colonies, or “settlements,” on Palestinian land with 98 additional “outposts” that are now home to around 700,000 Jewish settlers. In November, 145 national government delegations in the UN General Assembly reaffirmed the illegality of these settlements with only seven nations, including Israel, the U.S. and Canada, opposing the resolution.
This ICJ ruling reaffirms such settlers on Palestinian land are in violation of international law, a war crime judged by the Palestinians and the vast majority of the world to be the greatest obstacle to forging a lasting peace in the region.
Furthermore, groups of settlers often exercise violence against native Palestinians, frequently with the complicity of the Israeli military in the region.
#Infographic| Statistics on the Israeli Genocide in the Gaza Strip (07 October 2023-12 July 2024) pic.twitter.com/t1vTTsn0iW
— Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) July 13, 2024
Israel, which declined to participate in the oral hearings in February, responded to the ruling with anger, alleging the vast majority of the court, and the nations of the world, were motivated by antisemitism.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has defended spitting at Christians as an “ancient Jewish custom,” said, “The decision in The Hague proves for the umpteenth time that this is a distinctly antisemitic and political organization.” He went on to repeat the demand for full annexation of the West Bank and Gaza, insisting “the time has come for governance and sovereignty.”
Anticipating this ruling of the occupation’s illegality last week, “hard-right” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to respond with direct defiance of their legal obligations by fully annexing the internationally recognized Palestinian territory as well.
While virtually every national government in the world, including the United States, recognizes such land to be Palestinian territory under occupation, a full 145 of the 193 United Nations member states have taken the further step in recognizing the State of Palestine itself.
The ICJ ruling also not only echoes Christian bishops in the region in affirming Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians to be a form of apartheid, but this reality has also been acknowledged by several notable Israeli leaders such as former Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, along with former Israeli Ambassador to South Africa Alon Liel. Other human rights organizations along with notable international bodies have maintained this judgment as well.
“Our people want to put an end to this occupation,” responded Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN. “What happened today is a significant step in the direction of ending occupation and attaining the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to self-determination, statehood and the right of the refugees to return.”
In these comments from the Hague, he said Palestinian officials would examine “all the nuances” of the ruling and eventually “produce a masterpiece of a resolution in the General Assembly in line with this historic decision of the ICJ.”
Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, celebrated the ruling, calling it “a big victory for the Palestinian cause.”
“From a legal perspective, Israel is already indicted and condemned for its policies, for its occupation, settlements, and illegal apartheid rule,” he said. “The highest legal structure in the world has confirmed there is occupation, and it is illegal.”
According to Al Jazeera, he emphasized that Israel could no longer claim the occupied territory is “disputed” or that they have not imposed a system of apartheid.
“It is now the duty of everybody that respects international law to apply this resolution by demanding boycott, divestment and sanctions,” he said (reference).
“I don’t have high hopes that the UN Security Council will do this, because we know that the council is controlled by the American and perhaps British veto. But the most important thing is that this provides the basis for the creation of a global anti-apartheid movement against the Israeli system and occupation,” Barghouti concluded.
Palestinian Presidency welcomes the ICJ ruling and called on the international community to compel Israel to rapidly end its unlawful presence in Palestine: pic.twitter.com/cwdpkLH5F2
— State of Palestine (@Palestine_UN) July 19, 2024
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