The UN’s top court has said, in a landmark opinion, that the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel is against international law.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) therefore advised Israel to stop settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and immediately end its “illegal” occupation of the areas and the Gaza Strip.
Responding, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the court’s opinion as a “decision of lies”.
The court’s advisory opinion on the matter is not legally binding on Israel, but still carries significant political weight. This is the first time the ICJ has delivered a position on the legality of the 57-year occupation.
The ICJ, based at The Hague in the Netherlands, has been deliberating on the issue since the beginning of last year, at the request of the UN General Assembly.
The court was specifically approached to give its view on Israel’s policies and practices towards the Palestinians, and on the legality of Israel’s occupation of the area.
The ICJ President, Nawaf Salam while delivering the court’s findings said it had found that “Israel’s… continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is illegal.”
“The State of Israel is under the obligation to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible,” he said.
He added that the 2005 withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza Strip did not end Israel’s occupation of that area as it still exercises effective control over it.
The court also proposed that Israel should evacuate all of its settlers from the West Bank and East Jerusalem and pay reparations to Palestinians for damages caused by the occupation.
Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967. The court said the settlements were illegal.
The ICJ said Israel’s “policies and practices amount to annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory”, which it said was against international law, adding that Israel was “not entitled to sovereignty” over any part of the occupied territories.
Israel exercises sovereignty over Jerusalem as a whole, the eastern half of which it captured in the 1967 Middle East war. It considers the city its indivisible capital but this has not been accepted by the majority of the international community.
The court concluded that Israeli restrictions on Palestinians in the occupied territories constituted “systemic discrimination based on, inter alia, race, religion or ethnic origin”. It also noted that Israel had illegally exploited the Palestinians’ natural resources and violated their right to self-determination.
The ICJ also advised states to avoid any actions, including provision of aid or assistance, that would encourage the current situation.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Nentayahu in a swift response, issued a blunt statement rejecting what the court had determined.
“The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land – not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, nor in our ancestral heritage of Judea and Samaria” (the West Bank), Netanyahu said in a statement.
“No decision of lies in The Hague will distort this historical truth, and similarly, the legality of Israeli settlements in all parts of our homeland cannot be disputed.”
But the Palestinians hailed the court’s decisions.
Hussein Al Sheikh, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the Palestinians’ main umbrella group, called it “a historic victory for the rights of the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination. And the collapse and defeat of the Judaization project through confiscation, settlement, displacement, and racist practices against a people under occupation.
“The international community must respect the opinion of international justice and force Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories,” he said.
The findings of the court will now be tabled before the UN General Assembly, to decide the next line of action, including the option of adopting a resolution.
Source: BBC News
