On Monday, the United Nations Supreme Court begins a week of hearings on the legal consequences of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, with more than 50 countries scheduled to address the justices.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki will speak first in the legal proceedings before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
In 2022, the UN General Assembly asked the court to issue an advisory, or non-binding, opinion on the occupation.
Although Israel has ignored such views in the past, they may increase political pressure over its ongoing war in Gaza, which has killed about 29,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Strip, since October 7.
Among the countries scheduled to participate in the hearings are the United States, China, Russia, South Africa and Egypt.
Israel will not do so, although it has sent written comments.
The hearings are part of a Palestinian campaign to push international legal institutions to examine Israel’s behavior, which has become more urgent since the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people according to Israel, and the Israeli military response.
It also comes amid growing concerns about an Israeli ground attack on the city of Rafah in Gaza, the last refuge for more than a million Palestinians after they fled to the south of the Strip to avoid Israeli attacks.
Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, areas in Palestine where the Palestinians want to establish their state, in the 1967 war.
It withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but it still controls its borders alongside Egypt.
This is the second time that the United Nations General Assembly has asked the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, to issue an advisory opinion related to the occupied Palestinian territory.
In July 2004, the court concluded that the separation wall built by Israel in the West Bank violates international law and must be dismantled, although it remains in place to this day.
The judges are now required to review Israel’s “occupation, settlement and annexation”, “including measures aimed at changing the demographic composition, character and status of the city of Jerusalem, and its adoption of relevant discriminatory legislation and measures,” according to Reuters.
Since 1967, Israel has dramatically expanded settlements in the West Bank, a measure that Palestinians say harms the establishment of a viable Palestinian state. It also annexed East Jerusalem in a move that was not recognized by most countries.
The General Assembly also asked the 15-judge panel of the International Court of Justice to advise on how those policies and practices “affect the legal status of occupation” and what legal consequences this status has for all countries and the United Nations.
The advisory opinion procedure is separate from the genocide case brought by South Africa in the International Court against Israel over its alleged violations of the 1948 Genocide Convention in Gaza.
In late January, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel in that case to do everything in its power to prevent genocide in Gaza.
The outcome of the advisory opinion will not be legally binding, but will carry “significant legal weight and moral authority,” according to the International Court of Justice.
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2024-02-19 01:29:11
