HIC-HLRN welcomes the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Advisory Opinion in respect of the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
Today’s ruling follows a 30 December 2022 resolution of the UN General Assembly (GA), requesting the ICJ to advise on:
“(a) What are the legal consequences arising from the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, from its prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures?
(b) How do the policies and practices of Israel referred to . . . above affect the legal status of the occupation, and what are the legal consequences that arise for all States and the United Nations from this status?”
In its Advisory Opinion, the Court responded that:
- the State of Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt) is unlawful;
- the State of Israel is under an obligation to end its unlawful presence there as rapidly as possible;
- the State of Israel is under an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities, and to remove all settlers from the oPt;
- the State of Israel has the obligation to make reparation for the damage caused to all the natural or legal persons concerned in the oPt;
- all States and international organizations, including the United Nations, are under an obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from Israel’s unlawful presence in the oPt and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence of Israel in the oPt;
- the United Nations, and especially the GA and Security Council, should consider the precise modalities and further action required to bring to an end as rapidly as possible Israel’s unlawful presence in the oPt.
The Court settled the questions related to its jurisdiction to respond to the GA’s questions, then assessed the conformity of Israel’s policies and practices in the oPt with its international law obligations. In sequential order, the ICJ’s examined the questions of the prolonged occupation, Israel’s settlement policy, its annexation of Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, and Israel’s adoption of related legislation and measures that are allegedly discriminatory.
With regard to Israel’s prolonged 57-year occupation, the ICJ affirmed that Israel exercises effective control of the territory, while ‘occupation’ is a temporary situation to respond to military necessity, and Israel has no legal basis to transfer sovereignty to itself. The Court also found that the prolonged period of the occupation does not change the oPt’s legal status.
The Court found reaffirmed its 20-year-old Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the oPt that the Israeli settlements (settler colonies) and their associated regime in the West Bank and East Jerusalem violate international law. The ICJ also noted with grave concern that Israel’s settlement policy has expanded since the Court’s 2004 Advisory Opinion and seeks illegally to acquire sovereignty over occupied Palestinian land, contrary to the prohibition against the non-acquisition of territory by force.
With regard to the legal consequences arising from Israel’s discriminatory legislation and measures, the ICJ concluded that a broad array of Israeli legislation adopted and other measures taken cannot be justified. Accordingly, the Court found that the régime imposed by Israel on Palestinians in the oPt constitutes systemic discrimination violate core human rights treaties and general principles of international law, as well as denied the Palestinian people’s the exercise of the right to self‑determination for decades.
According to the ICJ, the effects of these policies and practices include Israel’s annexation of parts of the oPt, the fragmentation of this territory, undermining its integrity, the deprivation of the Palestinian people of the enjoyment of the natural resources of the territory and its impairment of the Palestinian people’s right to pursue its economic, social and cultural development. As a breach of the fundamental right to self-determination across the territorial unit where Israel has imposed its policies and practices to fragment and frustrate the ability of the Palestinian people to exercise its right to self‑determination and associated human rights, Israel is also under an obligation to provide full reparation to all natural or legal persons concerned for the damage caused by its internationally wrongful acts. The Court recalls that the essential operative principle is that “reparation must, as far as possible, wipe out all the consequences of the illegal act and reestablish the situation which would, in all probability, have existed if that act had not been committed,” including restitution, compensation and/or satisfaction (para. 269).
The only dissenting ICJ judge was again Julia Sabutinde (Uganda), who issued a Zionist ideology-driven and ahistorical dissenting opinion, even distorting the legal principle of uti possidetis juris to justify Israel’s occupation of the whole of Palestine.
In response to the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion, several countries call on international community to pressure Israel in wake of ‘watershed’ ruling by top UN court.
A full summary of the Advisory Opinion appears in the document entitled “Summary 2024/8”, to which summaries of the declarations and opinions are annexed. This summary and the full text of the Advisory Opinion are available on the case page on the Court’s website.
Photo on front page: Pro-Palestinian protester in front of the Peace Palace, seat of the ICJ. Source: Aljazeera. Photo on this page: President of the ICJ, Justice Nawaf Salam on the bench. Source: Aljazeera.
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