Representatives from Ireland, Japan and Jordan present their arguments at the ICJ hearing on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.
China has told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Palestinians “must not be denied” justice during a hearing into the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
“Justice has been delayed for a long time, but it must not be denied,” Ma Xinmin, legal adviser to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told the court in The Hague, Netherlands, on Thursday.
“Fifty-seven years have passed since Israel began its occupation of the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories). The illegal nature of the occupation and sovereignty over the occupied territories remain unchanged,” he said.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Step Vaessen, reporting from The Hague, said China used its time at the ICJ to counter the US argument on Wednesday that Israel should not be ordered to withdraw unconditionally occupied territories without security guarantees.
“The United States has said the United Nations and the ICJ should stay out of a bilateral issue between Israel and Palestine. According to China, it was certainly up to the UN to talk about the self-determination of the Palestinian people,” Vaessen said.
“The Chinese representative said that Israel is a foreign nation occupying Palestine, and therefore the right to self-defense belongs more to the Palestinians than to the Israelis. »
On Thursday, representatives from the Republic of Ireland, Japan and Jordan also presented their arguments to the ICJ.
Ireland said it had concluded that “Israel has committed serious violations of a number of peremptory norms of general international law.”
The Irish representative added that Israel had also violated fundamental rules of international humanitarian law.
The legal adviser to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Tomohiro Mikanagi, also told the ICJ that his country believes that a “two-state solution, in which Israel and the future independent Palestinian state live side by side in peace and dignity, remains the only viable path for both peoples.” .
For Jordan, Michael Wood declared that “the only way to exercise the (Palestinian) right to self-determination is to end the (Israeli) occupation.”
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, said Jordan holds a “key position” in the ICJ hearing as it is one of the most prominent critics of the occupation and is also the guardian of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem.
“Even though they have not only criticized the occupation, they have also criticized Israel’s war on Gaza, so their role in the region is very crucial in helping the Palestinians in all kinds of conversations,” he said. she declared.
The ICJ hears views from around 50 countries on the occupation and is part of Palestinian efforts to get international legal institutions to examine Israeli policies.
On Monday, Palestinian representatives asked judges to declare Israel’s occupation of their territory illegal and said their opinion could help achieve a two-state solution.
In the occupied West Bank, tensions between illegal settlers and Palestinians have increased significantly due to Israel’s war on Gaza.
On October 7, a Hamas attack killed 1,139 Israelis, according to Tel Aviv Tribune’s Israeli tally. In response, Israel’s deadly offensive on Gaza has killed an estimated 29,000 Palestinians.
Israel, which is not participating in the hearings, said in written comments that the court’s involvement could harm the achievement of a negotiated settlement.
The judges should take around six months to issue an opinion.
