ICJ Delivers Biased Ruling Against Israel on West Bank and Jerusalem

Newest Developments

The United Nations’ (UN’s) high court docket issued a nonbinding advisory opinion on July 19, declaring that “the State of Israel’s continued presence” within the West Financial institution and japanese Jerusalem is “illegal.” The opinion from the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague additionally asserted that Israel is engaged in “systemic discrimination” in opposition to “Palestinians within the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” The ICJ added that Israel “is below an obligation to convey to an finish its illegal presence within the Occupied Palestinian Territory as quickly as attainable.” The court docket, led by Lebanese jurist and politician Nawaf Salam, additional opined that Israel’s “insurance policies and practices” within the West Financial institution and japanese Jerusalem, together with “the upkeep and enlargement of settlements,” quantity to “annexation of huge elements of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

The ICJ’s advisory opinion was requested by a UN Normal Meeting decision handed in 2022. The ruling marked the primary time a world court docket has dominated on the legality of the Israeli presence in areas that Israel gained management of after its victory within the Six Day Battle, its defensive warfare in opposition to an alliance of Arab nations in 1967. Israel didn’t take part within the ICJ’s proceedings, calling the case biased and an “abuse of worldwide legislation and the judicial course of.”

In a dissenting opinion written by the ICJ’s Vice President Julia Sebutinde, the Ugandan choose stated, “The Courtroom has misapplied the legislation of belligerent occupation and has adopted presumptions implicit within the query of the Normal Meeting with no prior crucial evaluation of related points, together with the applying of the precept of uti possidetis juris to the territory of the previous British Mandate, the query of Israel’s borders and its competing sovereignty claims, the character of the Palestinian proper of self-determination and its relationship to Israel’s personal rights and safety issues.”

Professional Evaluation

“ICJ Chief Decide Nawaf Salam, who presided over at the moment’s opinion, has twice been a candidate for prime minister of Lebanon, as soon as with Hezbollah’s help, since becoming a member of the court docket in 2018. The ICJ opinion reads like a marketing campaign speech for a 3rd run. It ignores Israel’s proper of self-defense and deeply undermines the precept, established by the Safety Council and Oslo Accords, that Israel want withdraw from territories occupied in its 1967 warfare of self-defense solely in trade for peace. The opinion’s rationale gravely undercuts the power to defend themselves once more terrorism of not solely Israel but additionally the US and its NATO allies.” — Orde Kittrie, FDD Senior Fellow

“Ignoring the historical past that led to Israeli management of the West Financial institution and Israeli makes an attempt to realize peace with the Palestinians, the ICJ assigned all of the blame and duties to Israel and all of the rights to the Palestinians. This could be like criticizing Israel for current Palestinian deaths whereas ignoring Hamas’s October 7 bloodbath, which is the premise of a separate ICJ case.” — David Could, FDD Analysis Supervisor and Senior Analysis Analyst

Israeli Officers United in Opposition to Ruling

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the ICJ’s ruling. “The Jewish individuals are not occupiers in their very own land — not in our everlasting capital Jerusalem, not within the land of our ancestors in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu stated. “No false choice in The Hague will distort this historic fact, simply because the legality of Israeli settlement in all of the territories of our homeland can’t be contested.”

Israeli opposition minister Benny Gantz, chairman of the opposition Nationwide Unity social gathering, stated that the court docket’s ruling was “counterproductive to the regional safety and stability and overlooks the bloodbath of October 7 and terror from Judea and Samaria.” Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman known as the ruling “one other antisemitic present,” including, “Whereas a warfare was launched in opposition to the State of Israel on six totally different fronts, the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice in The Hague selected to launch its personal marketing campaign, the entire goal of which is to hurt Israel’s proper to defend itself in opposition to terrorism.”

“The Pending Israel-Palestine ICJ Advisory Opinion: Threats to Authorized Rules and Safety,” by Orde Kittrie and Bruce Rashkow

“The ICJ’s New Chief Decide Has a Historical past of Bias Towards Israel,” by Orde Kittrie

“Pending ICJ Case Threatens to Demand Unconditional Israeli Withdrawal from West Financial institution,” by Orde Kittrie