Benjamin Netanyahu condemns the ruling // PA and Hamas demand immediate withdrawal of invaders from Gaza and the reoccupied West Bank
▲ The Ibrahim Abu Alya family in their home, which was almost completely destroyed by repeated Israeli bombings, in the southern Gazan town of Bani Suheila.Afp Photo
AFP and Reuters
The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, July 20, 2024, p. 21
The Hague., The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled yesterday that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories –which has lasted for decades– is illegal and urged to put an end to it as quickly as possible.
The highest judicial body of the United Nations (UN), whose rulings are not binding but may influence international pressure, has ruled on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967, at a time of growing tension after more than nine months of war in Gaza.
Nawaf Salam, the presiding judge of the Hague-based court, said: The State of Israel has the obligation to end its illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territories as soon as possible.following an unprecedented process in which fifty countries provided testimony.
The court said Israel’s obligations include paying compensation for damages and the evacuation of all settlers from existing settlements.
The ICJ took up this case after the UN General Assembly adopted, on December 31, 2022, a resolution to request its advisory opinion about the Legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the statement a lie and stated, in a statement, that The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land, nor in our eternal capital, Jerusalem, nor in our ancestral heritage of Judea and Samaria.name corresponding to the reoccupied West Bank territory.
The Prime Minister, who will travel next week to the United States – his main ally – said that No decision based on lies in The Hague will distort this historical truth.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right settler and supporter of the annexation of the entire West Bank, denounced the ICJ as an openly anti-Semitic and political organization.
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA), headed by Mahmoud Abbas, welcomed the historical court decision.
The presidency welcomes the decision of the International Court of Justice, considers it a historic decision and demands that Israel be forced to implement itAbbas said in a statement carried by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. The PA’s Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, said that This is a great day for Palestine, historically and legally..
Meanwhile, President Abbas’ special envoy for international relations, Riyad al-Malki, urged all countries to reconsider relations with Israel following the court’s ruling.
Hamas, for its part, demanded international action. immediate to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
In June 1967, Israel waged the Six-Day War, seizing control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the Gaza Strip and Sinai from Egypt.
Israel then began to occupy the 70,000 square kilometers of Arab lands it had seized. The United Nations declared this occupation illegal.
Extreme danger for the region
At the February hearings in The Hague, most of those who spoke called on Israel to end its post-Six-Day War occupation, with some warning that a prolonged occupation poses a threat to the Palestinians. extreme danger for stability in the Middle East and beyond the region.
Palestinian representatives accused the Israelis of running a system of “colonialism and apartheid”and urged the judges to call for an end to the occupation in a timely manner immediate, total and unconditional.
South Africa’s ambassador to the Netherlands told judges that Israel’s policies in the Palestinian territories are a form of even more extreme of the apartheid that your country lived before 1994.
But Washington came to the defence of its ally, saying Israel should not be legally obliged to withdraw, regardless of its very real security needs.
Israel did not participate in the hearings, but submitted a written submission in which it described the questions put to the court as harmful and biased.
These hearings are not related to the case brought before the ICJ by South Africa, which accuses Israel of committing genocidal acts against the Palestinian population in Gaza since October.