The United Nations International Court of Justice began hearings on Monday into the legality of Israel’s occupation of land intended for a future Palestinian state (the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and annexed East Jerusalem).
The Palestinian foreign minister on Monday accused Israel of apartheid and urged the United Nations’ highest court to declare that Israel’s occupation of land sought for a Palestinian state is illegal and must end immediately and unconditionally.
The allegation was made at the start of historic hearings into the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation of land sought for the creation of a Palestinian state. The case is set against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which immediately became the focus of the day, even though the hearings were supposed to focus on Israel’s unlimited control over the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the eastern part of Jerusalem annexed.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said he was standing before the International Court of Justice “as 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, half of them children, are besieged and bombed, killed and maimed, starved and displaced“.
“More than 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, are subject to the colonization of their territory and the racist violence that promotes it“, he added.
The session, expected to last six days, follows a request for a non-binding advisory opinion on Israel’s policies from the United Nations General Assembly.
“The United Nations has enshrined in its charter the right of all people to self-determination and is committed to ridding the world of the most serious violations of this right, namely colonialism and apartheid.“, continued Mr. al-Maliki. “Yet for decades the Palestinian people were denied this right and endured colonialism and apartheid.”
A prolonged occupation
Palestinians claim that Israel, by annexing large areas of occupied land, violated the ban on territorial conquest and the Palestinian right to self-determination, and imposed a system of racial discrimination and apartheid.
“This occupation is annexation and supremacy in nature,” said Mr. al-Maliki, who asked the Court to uphold the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and declare “that the Israeli occupation is illegal and must cease immediately, completely and unconditionally.
After the Palestinians’ speech, an unprecedented number of 51 countries and three international organizations will speak. Israel is not expected to speak during the hearings, but may submit a written statement.
Yuval Shany, a law professor at Hebrew University and senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, said Israel would likely justify continued occupation on security grounds, especially in the absence of a peace agreement.
He will likely discuss the October 7 attack, in which Hamas-led Gaza militants killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and brought 250 hostages back to the territory.
However, Palestinians and leading human rights groups say the occupation goes far beyond defensive measures.
They say it has transformed into a system of apartheid, reinforced by the construction of settlements on occupied lands, which gives Palestinians second-rate status and aims to maintain Jewish hegemony from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea . Israel rejects any accusation of apartheid.
Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East War. The Palestinians want to create an independent state in these three regions. Israel considers the West Bank to be disputed territory. , the future of which should be decided through negotiations.
More and more colonies
According to the monitoring group Peace Now, it has built 146 settlements in the West Bank, many of which resemble fully developed suburbs or small towns. The settlements are home to more than 500,000 Jewish settlers, while around 3 million Palestinians live in the territory.
Israel has annexed East Jerusalem and considers the entire city its capital. An additional 200,000 Israelis live in settlements built in East Jerusalem, which Israel considers neighborhoods of its capital. The city’s Palestinian residents face systematic discrimination, making it difficult to build new homes or expand existing ones.
Israel withdrew all its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but continued to control the territory’s airspace, coastline and population registry. Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza when the Palestinian militant group Hamas took power there in 2007.
The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements to be illegal. Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, home to the city’s most sensitive holy sites, is not internationally recognized.
ADVERTISEMENTThis is not the first time the Court has been asked to give an advisory opinion on Israeli policies.
In 2004, she declared that the separation barrier built by Israel across East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank was “contrary to international law”. She also called on Israel to immediately stop construction. Israel ignored this decision.
Separately, late last month, the Court ordered Israel to do everything in its power to prevent death, destruction and acts of genocide in its campaign in Gaza. The order was issued at a preliminary stage of a lawsuit filed by South Africa, which accuses Israel of genocide, a charge Israel has denied.
South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress, has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank to South Africa’s white minority apartheid regime, which confined most black people to “homelands” before ending in 1994.
