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The International Court of Justice, the highest court of the United Nations, on Friday ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967 is illegal and that it must compensate people whose property was annexed by the Zionist occupier. “This is a great day for Palestine,” said Varsen Aghabekian Chahine, the Palestinian Authority’s deputy minister for foreign affairs.
“Israel’s persistent abuse of its position as an occupying power by annexing and imposing permanent control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as well as by continuously depriving the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination, violates principles of international law and renders Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful,” the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said in its opinion issued on 19 July 2024 on “the legal consequences of Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”
The ICJ declared itself competent, and ruled that Israel’s policies and practices in these territories, defined as “a single territorial unit comprising the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza,” are not in conformity with international law.
This illicit nature forces the Zionist entity “to the obligation to end its presence in the occupied Palestinian territories as soon as possible, (…) and the obligation to repair the damage caused to all the legal and natural persons concerned.”
The Court considers that the modalities for the end of Israel’s presence in the Palestinian territories, with “evacuation of all settlers”, are the responsibility of the UN General Assembly and the Security Council.
The proceedings concern an advisory opinion requested by the UN General Assembly from the ICJ in December 2022 – before the Al Aqsa Flood operation of 7 October 2023 in Israel followed by the massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza by the Zionist army.
This case is quite distinct from South Africa’s complaint against Israel for “genocide in Gaza”, filed on 29 December 2023, which is the subject of a separate procedure. It is in this context that the ICJ asked Israel on 24 May 2024 to suspend its military operation in Rafah, an order that Israel has not complied with.
The ICJ, based in The Hague, is the principal judicial organ of the UN, and has jurisdiction to settle legal disputes submitted to it by states and to give advisory opinions.