July 20, 2024
The International Court of Justice has ruled, by 14 votes to 1, that Israel must immediately cease all new settlement activities and evacuate all settlers from the occupied Palestinian territories.
These are the strongest findings to date. The ICJ noted that “Israel’s” occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements violates international law and must end as soon as possible.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the high court’s statement, calling it a “false” decision that seeks to distort what he called a “historical truth”. Meanwhile, and in the midst of the siege by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured that a cease-fire agreement in the Hamas-controlled enclave was near.
Evacuating Israeli settlers from the Palestinian territories, dismantling the separation wall in the West Bank and returning land to its original residents. These are among the main demands of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to the Jewish-majority state after ruling that its occupation there is “illegal.”
The 15-judge panel of the UN high court stressed July 19 that an extensive list of the Jewish-majority state’s policies, including the construction and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, use of the area’s natural resources, annexation, imposition of permanent control over land and discriminatory measures against Palestinians “violate international law.”
Israel’s “abuse of its status as an occupying power” makes its “presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful” and must end “as quickly as possible,” the judges stressed.
They constitute an obstruction to the exercise by the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination.
“The effects of these policies and practices include the annexation by Israel of parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the fragmentation of that territory, undermining its integrity, the deprivation of the Palestinian people of the enjoyment of the territory’s natural resources, the undermining of Palestinian citizenship and the right of peoples to pursue their economic, social and cultural development,” the ICJ remarked in its 83-page statement on Israeli policies, read by the court’s president, Nawaf Salam.
Therefore, the Court stressed that Israel must immediately stop settlement construction, remove existing settlements and pay restitution for damages.
It also stressed that the UN Security Council, the General Assembly and all States have the obligation not to recognize the occupation as legal nor “give aid or assistance” to maintain the presence of the State of “Israel” in the occupied territories.
This July 19 statement by the ICJ comes in response to a 2022 request by the UN General Assembly, which then asked the court to assess the legal consequences of Israel’s prolonged “occupation, settlement and annexation” and its associated policies in the Palestinian Territories.
Source: Cuba en Resumen