UN’s top court says Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories illegal

The UN’s top court has slammed Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories saying it goes against international law.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) said in a landmark opinion that Israel should stop settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jersalem. It also called for an end to the “illegal” occupation of all Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip.

The ICJ’s advisory opinion is not legally binding but carries significant political weight and marks the first time the court has pronounced itself on the legality of the decades-old occupation.

In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the court had made a “decision of lies”.

The ICJ, based at The Hague in the Netherlands, had been examining the issue since the beginning of last year, at the request of the UN General Assembly.

The court was specifically asked to give its view on Israel's policies and practices towards the Palestinians, and on the legal status of the occupation.

The issue is distinct from another active case brought to the ICJ by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in the war in Gaza.

ICJ President Nawaf Salam said the court had found that “Israel's... continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is illegal.”

“The State of Israel is under the obligation to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible,” he said.

He added that Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 did not end Israel's occupation in that area since it still exercises effective control over the land.

The court also said Israel should evacuate all of its settlers from the West Bank and East Jerusalem and pay reparations to Palestinians for damages caused by the occupation.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967. The court said the settlements were illegal. Israel has consistently disputed that these settlements are against international law.

Israel claims sovereignty over the whole of Jerusalem, the eastern half of which it captured in the 1967 Middle East war. It considers the city its indivisible capital - something which is not accepted by the vast majority of the international community.

Israel's prime minister rejected the court’s opinion with a blunt statement saying “the Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land - not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, nor in our ancestral heritage of Judea and Samaria”.

Judea and Samaria are a reference to the West Bank.

But the court's findings were welcomed by the Palestinians.

Hussein Al Sheikh, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) called it “a historic victory for the rights of the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination”.

“The international community must respect the opinion of international justice and force Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories,” he said.

The court's findings will now go to the UN General Assembly, which will decide how to respond, including the option of adopting a resolution. That would be significant and could constitute a catalyst for negotiations and set the legal parameters for a future negotiated settlement.