(Jerusalem) The Palestinian Authority welcomed on Friday the “historic” decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which described as “unlawful” the occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967 by Israel, for which this opinion is “absurd” and “intrinsically erroneous”.
The UN’s highest court issued an “advisory opinion” on Friday in which it ruled that “Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful” and that Israel is “under an obligation [d’y] end […] as soon as possible “.
The Court is also “of the opinion that the State of Israel is under an obligation to immediately cease all further settlement activity, and to evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
The Occupied Palestinian Territory includes the West Bank, occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem (annexed by Israel), as well as the Gaza Strip, from which Israel unilaterally withdrew in 2005, but which the Israeli state has de facto reoccupied following the war that began on 7 October following an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on its soil.
Some 50 states testified in the unprecedented case. The opinion by the ICJ, which sits in The Hague, is not binding but could increase international legal pressure on Israel over its military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian presidency “considers the decision historic,” the office of President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement carried by the official Wafa news agency.
” Big day ”
This is a “victory for justice, since it confirms that the Israeli occupation is illegal,” continued the Palestinian presidency, which called on Israel to “put an end to the occupation” and to the Jewish “colonies” in the West Bank.
“This is a great day for Palestine,” said Varsen Aghabekian Chahine, Minister Delegate for Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority.
“It is the highest jurisdiction [de l’ONU] and she presented a very detailed analysis of what is happening through Israel’s prolonged occupation and colonization of Palestinian territory, in violation of international law,” said M.me Aghabekian to AFP.
Hamas “welcomed” the ICJ’s opinion, which it said places the international community “in the face of the imperative to act immediately to put an end to the occupation.”
“The Jews are not occupiers in their own land,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced.
“No lying decision in The Hague can distort the historical truth,” continued the leader of the Likud (right), adding that “the legality of Israeli settlements” “cannot be disputed,” while the UN has been repeating for years that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law and must stop expanding.
“Openly anti-Semitic”
Mr Netanyahu, who heads a government that includes several far-right ministers, settlers and supporters of outright annexation of the West Bank, also called the ICJ’s opinion “absurd”, according to an official document in English sent by his office.
PHOTO RONEN ZVULUN, REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
While the Israeli parliament adopted a resolution on the night of Wednesday to Thursday opposing the creation of a Palestinian state whose authority would extend over the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote on Friday on X that the opinion given in The Hague was likely to “remove the possibility of resolving the conflict” between Israel and Palestine.
“Israel rejects the non-binding opinion of the ICJ”, which is “intrinsically wrong” because it “mixes politics and international law”, believes Israeli diplomacy.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (far right) denounced the ICJ as “an openly anti-Semitic and political organization.”
“The answer to The Hague: sovereignty now,” wrote his colleague from the same side, Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, in a terse message on X.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, a centrist, said the court’s opinion was “out of touch” [de la réalité]partial [et]tainted with anti-Semitism.”
A dissenting voice in Israel, the anti-colonization NGO B’Tselem considered that with the ICJ’s opinion, the international community had “no more pretext” to free itself from “its duty to protect the Palestinians” and must now “use all the tools – criminal, diplomatic and economic – (at its disposal) to force the Israeli leaders to put an end to the occupation.”