UN seeks ICJ opinion on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine

The decision will see Worldwide Court docket of Justice give opinion on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.

President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, on a video display addressing the UN Common Meeting in September 2021 [File: Mary Altaffer/AP Photo]

The United Nations Common Meeting has handed a decision calling on the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ) to present an opinion on the authorized penalties of Israel’s unlawful occupation of Palestinian territories.

The Common Meeting voted 87 to 26 with 53 abstentions on the decision, with Western nations cut up however with nearly unanimous assist within the Islamic world – together with amongst Arab states which have normalised relations with Israel. Russia and China voted in favour of the decision.

Israel, the US and 24 different members – together with the UK and Germany – voted in opposition to the decision, whereas France was among the many 53 nations that abstained.

The Hague-based ICJ, also referred to as the World Court docket, is the highest UN courtroom coping with disputes between states. Its rulings are binding, although the ICJ has no energy to implement them.

The vote of the #UNGA and the assist of 87 nations requesting a authorized advisory opinion from the #ICJ on the character of occupation within the occupied #Palestinian territories displays the victory of Palestinian diplomacy, led by the President, https://t.co/PrxtrT8BIN

— حسين الشيخ Hussein AlSheikh (@HusseinSheikhpl) December 31, 2022

Palestinian leaders on Saturday welcomed the vote, with senior official Hussein al-Sheikh saying it “displays the victory of Palestinian diplomacy”.

“The time has come for Israel to be a state topic to legislation, and to be held accountable for its ongoing crimes in opposition to our individuals,” mentioned Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Palestine’s UN ambassador Riyad Mansour famous that the vote got here someday after the swearing-in of a brand new far-right Israeli authorities, which he mentioned guarantees an growth of unlawful Jewish settlements and can speed up “colonial and racist insurance policies” in direction of Palestinians. He additionally hailed nations that voted in favour of the decision and have been “undeterred by threats and strain”.

The UN Common Meeting requested the ICJ to present an advisory opinion on the authorized penalties of Israel’s “occupation, settlement and annexation … together with measures aimed toward altering the demographic composition, character and standing of the Holy Metropolis of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of associated discriminatory laws and measures”.

The UN decision additionally asks the ICJ to advise on how these insurance policies and practices “have an effect on the authorized standing of the occupation” and what authorized penalties come up for all nations and the UN from this standing.

The ICJ final weighed in on the problem of Israel’s occupation in 2004, when it dominated that Israel’s wall within the occupied West Financial institution and East Jerusalem was unlawful. Israel rejected that ruling, accusing the courtroom of being politically motivated.

Nearly all of nations supported Palestine, although it would take a pair years for a non-binding opinion to be issued. In 2004, courtroom dominated Israel’s wall within the West Financial institution and East Jerusalem was opposite to worldwide legislation. pic.twitter.com/5as9blIMZw

— Kristen Saloomey (@KSaloomey) December 30, 2022

“No worldwide physique can resolve that the Jewish individuals are ‘occupiers’ in their very own homeland. Any determination from a judicial physique which receives its mandate from the morally bankrupt and politicised UN is totally illegitimate,” Israel’s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, mentioned in a press release forward of the vote.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday mentioned the UN vote was “despicable”.

“The Jewish individuals are not occupiers on their very own land nor occupiers in our everlasting capital Jerusalem and no UN decision can warp that historic reality,” he mentioned in a video message.

Throughout the June 1967 conflict, Israel occupied all of historic Palestine and expelled 300,000 Palestinians from their properties. Israel additionally captured the Syrian Golan Heights within the north and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula within the south. In 1978, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty which led to Israel withdrawing from Egyptian territory.

The occupied Palestinian territories have been underneath Israeli navy management since 1967. This makes it the longest occupation in trendy historical past. The segmented territories embrace Gaza, the West Financial institution and East Jerusalem.

“We don't really feel that a referral to the Worldwide Court docket of Justice is useful in bringing the events again to dialogue,” UK diplomat Thomas Phipps mentioned of the UN vote.

“It is usually the place of the UK that it's inappropriate with out the consent of each events to ask the courtroom to present an advisory opinion in what is actually a bilateral dispute.”

Amongst Western nations that backed the decision was Portugal, whose consultant acknowledged the “danger of overjudicialising worldwide relations” however mentioned the world courtroom “underpins the worldwide rules-based order which we search to protect”.