The top UN court on Friday said that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful and called on it to end, and for settlement construction to stop immediately, issuing an unprecedented, sweeping condemnation of Israel’s rule over the lands it captured 57 years ago.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly denounced the nonbinding opinion issued by the 15-judge panel of the International Court of Justice, saying the territories are part of the Jewish people’s historic homeland.
However, the resounding breadth of the decision could affect international opinion and fuel moves for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.
Photo: AP
The judges pointed to a wide list of policies, including the building and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, use of the area’s natural resources, the annexation and imposition of permanent control over lands and discriminatory policies against Palestinians, all of which it said contravened international law.
The court said Israel had no right to sovereignty in the territories, was breaching international laws against acquiring territory by force and was impeding Palestinians’ right to self-determination.
Other nations were obliged not to “render aid or assistance in maintaining” Israel’s presence in the territories, it said.
Israel must end settlement construction immediately and existing settlements must be removed, sais a summary of the more than 80-page opinion read out by court President Nawaf Salam.
Israel’s “abuse of its status as the occupying power” renders its “presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful,” the court said, saying its presence must be ended as “rapidly as possible.”
The court’s opinion was sought by the UN General Assembly after a Palestinian request.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres would promptly transmit the advisory opinion to the 193-member world body and “it is for the General Assembly to decide how to proceed in the matter,” UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said.
The secretary-general reiterates his call for Israel and the Palestinians to engage “on the long-delayed political path toward ending the occupation and resolving the conflict in line with international law, relevant UN resolutions and bilateral agreements,” Haq said.
Guterres also said that a two-state solution is “the only viable path” to seeing Israel and “a fully independent, democratic, contiguous, viable and sovereign Palestinian state” living side by side in peace and security, Haq said.
“The Jewish people are not conquerors in their own land — not in our eternal capital Jerusalem and not in the land of our ancestors in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office, using the biblical terms for the West Bank. “No false decision in The Hague will distort this historical truth and likewise the legality of Israeli settlement in all the territories of our homeland cannot be contested.”
Speaking outside the court, Riad Malki, an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called the opinion “a watershed moment for Palestine, for justice and for international law.”
He said other nations must now “uphold the clear obligations” outlined by the court.
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