The International Court of Justice said on Friday that Israel's settlement policies and exploitation of natural resources in the Palestinian territories are a violation of international law.
On Friday, the United Nations International Court of Justice opened a hearing to issue a non-binding advisory opinion on the legality of the 57-year-old Israeli occupation of the lands on which the Palestinians seek to establish their state, a ruling that may have a greater impact on international public opinion than on Israel’s policies.
The President of the International Court of Justice, Nawaf Salam, said during the session: “Israeli settlement policies have fueled violence against the Palestinians,” noting that “Israel has accelerated the establishment of new settlements in the West Bank, which amounted to more than 24 thousand settlement units.”
He added: "Israel's actions violate the law that prohibits the transfer of residents in the occupied territories. There is no justification for applying Israeli law in the West Bank."
He continued: "The court believes that control over the occupied territories must be temporary and that its continuation amounts to annexation."
Salam explained that "Israel's confiscation of Palestinian lands and granting them to settlers is not temporary and violates the Geneva Convention."
He added, "We consider that Israel has failed in its duty to protect the Palestinians from settler violence in the West Bank."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the International Court of Justice's decision issued on Friday, which confirmed that Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is "illegitimate" and called for its end.
Netanyahu considered that "the Jewish people do not occupy their land, nor our capital, Jerusalem, nor the land of our fathers and grandfathers in Judea and Samaria," which is the name the Israelis give to the occupied West Bank.
Netanyahu continued: “There is no false decision in The Hague that will distort this historical fact, and the legality of Israeli settlement on the land of our homeland cannot be questioned.”
In another Israeli reaction to the court's decision, the two extreme right-wing ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich called for "the annexation of the Western character to Israel."
On Friday, the International Court of Justice said in an advisory opinion that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law.
The findings of the judges of the court in The Hague, the highest UN court, are not binding but have weight under international law.
“The Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, were established and are being maintained in violation of international law,” said Court President Nawaf Salam, while reading the findings of a panel of 15 judges.
The case is being considered based on a request submitted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2022, before the start of the war that Israel has been waging on the Gaza Strip for more than 9 months.
The UN General Assembly asked the court to evaluate the legal consequences of Israel's "long-term occupation, settlement and annexation" of Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, and Israeli government policies related to those practices.
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