The vote at the International Court of Justice against Israel’s occupation was 11-4. The court also voted to call on Israel to evacuate all settlers from the West Bank.
The Peace Palace, seat of the International Court of Justice, at The Hague, Netherlands. (UN Photo/ICJ/Jeroen Bouman, Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The International Court of Justice said Friday that Israel’s decades long occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful and must end.
The court’s non-binding advisory opinion was read aloud by ICJ President Nawaf Salam, a Lebanese judge and academic. Salam said the court determined based on “extensive evidence” that Israel is guilty of confiscating “large areas” of Palestinian land for use by Israeli settlers, exploiting natural resources and undermining the local population’s right to self-determination under international law.
The court pointed to “Israel’s systematic failure to prevent or punish” settler violence and “demolition of Palestinian property” in the West Bank as part of its case that the Israeli government’s actions in the occupied territories are indicative of an attempt to permanently annex land and forcibly transfer Palestinians from their homes.
“Israel is not entitled to sovereignty in any part of the occupied Palestinian territory on account of its occupation, nor can security concerns override the prohibition on acquisition of territory by force,” said Salam.
The ICJ vote against Israel’s occupation was 11-4. The court also voted to call on Israel to evacuate all settlers from the West Bank.
[In February, the Biden administration restored the 50-year old U.S. position that the occupation is “illegitimate” — not “illegal.” The Trump administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the U.S. no longer viewed the occupation as illegitimate.]
In a 12-3 vote, the ICJ said that all nations “are under an obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of the state of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence of the state of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
The United States was among the countries that warned the ICJ against advising that Israel must swiftly end its occupation.
Jake Johnson is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
This article is from Common Dreams.
Views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
I’m really curious what the story is behind the Ugandan judge Sebutinde. She has consistently ruled in Israel’s favor in every one of these cases so far.
Netanyahu’s reaction is telling: it never was Palestinian land.
‘Responding to the ICJ ruling that found Israeli presence in the territories to be illegal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says: “The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land — not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, not in the land of our ancestors in Judea and Samaria.”
“No false decision in The Hague will distort this historical truth, just as the legality of Israeli settlement in all the territories of our homeland cannot be contested,” Netanyahu adds.’
hxxps://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/responding-to-false-icj-ruling-pm-says-jewish-people-cant-be-occupiers-in-their-own-land/
As Polyphemus said to Odysseus: “Here we have no law, we
do as we please!” (Homer’s the Odyssey).
So the Israeli Zionist state cares nothing for words from
the United Nations and has no intention of lessening
its genocidal purpose to annex Gaza and the West Bank.
Excellent journalists need to confront the issue that
Israel is a neo-Nazi state backed in full by the United States
of Israel. And that truth hurts.
Non-binding? We must demand enforcement. And an ICC arrest warrant for Bibi et al. Free Palestine!
The tide has not just turned in favour of Palestinian sovereignty, but an under tow is pulling the Zionist state ever further into global isolation and pariah status. The end will finally come for Israel when, likely for economic reasons, the United States withdrawal’s the military and monetary support that enables it to inhabit a bubble of smug impunity and bellicosity towards the indigenous population and it’s neighbors. Though the day is still far off, when it arrives Israelis will be compelled to either grow up and accept coexistence with Palestinians who enjoy equity and equality or flee to who knows where.
I’ve been an adult for about 40 years. I never before imagined such an acceleratated downfall of the Anglo-Zionist alliance. It’s far from over but the cracks are impossible to hide and will continue to widen
“Israel is guilty of confiscating “large areas” of Palestinian land for use by Israeli settlers, exploiting natural resources and undermining the local population’s right to self-determination under international law”
What?! Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin, Dershowitz et al. have been telling me for years that it’s Jordanian or Egyptian land and Palestinians never existed as a nation. What gives?
I’ve been hearing that same B.S. from my Evangelical, Dispensationalist friends tool. They are trying to justify the evil that Israel has been doing to the Palestinians.
Yep. It’s sickening and disgraceful.
Stay strong in the face of the massive lies and deceit.