The UN International Court of Justice on Friday declared Israel’s settlement policy in the West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal. The court called on Israel to evacuate Israelis from the Palestinian territories as soon as possible and to pay reparations for the damage caused to Palestinians living in those regions, The Independent reports.
The advisory opinion of the judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), known as the World Court, is not binding but carries weight in international law and could weaken support for Israel. President Nawaf Salam said, reading the findings of a 15-judge panel:
Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law.
The Court ruled that Israel’s obligations include reparations and the “evacuation of all settlers from existing settlements.” The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected this view as “fundamentally wrong” and one-sided, and reiterated its position that a political settlement in the region can only be achieved through negotiations. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement:
The Jewish nation cannot be an occupier in its own land.
The opinion has also angered West Bank settlers, as well as politicians such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose nationalist religious party is close to the settler movement and who himself lives in a West Bank settlement. He said in a post on the social media platform X, in an apparent appeal to formally annex the West Bank:
The answer to The Hague – Sovereignty now.
Israel Gantz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council, one of the largest settlement councils, said the UN International Court of Justice opinion “contradicts the Bible, morality and international law.”
The ICJ opinion also said that the UN Security Council, the General Assembly and all states have an obligation not to recognise the occupation as legitimate and not to “aid or assist” Israel’s continued presence in the occupied territories. The United States is Israel’s biggest military ally and supporter. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called the opinion “historic” and called on states to adhere to it. Palestinian envoy Riyad al-Maliki said outside the court in The Hague:
No aid. No assistance. No complicity. No money, no arms, no trade…no actions of any kind to support Israel’s illegal occupation.
Beginning of the Palestinian occupation
The case emerged in 2022, when the UN General Assembly requested a legal opinion, even before the Gaza war began in October. Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem – the territories of historic Palestine on which Palestinians want to establish their state – in the 1967 Middle East war and has been building settlements in the West Bank and steadily expanding them ever since. Israeli leaders argue that legally these territories are not occupied because they are on disputed land, but the United Nations and most members of the international community consider them occupied territory.
More than 50 states presented their views to the court in February, with Palestinian representatives asking the court to recognise that Israel must withdraw from all occupied territories and dismantle illegal settlements. Israel did not participate in the oral hearings but filed a written statement telling the court that an advisory opinion would be “detrimental” to attempts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Most of the participating countries asked the court to declare the occupation illegal, while several states, including Canada and Britain, argued that the court should refuse to issue an advisory opinion. The US asked the court not to order an unconditional withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Palestinian territories.
The US position was that the court should not make any judgement that could damage the two-state land-for-peace negotiations. The ICJ issued an advisory judgement in 2004 that the Israeli separation barrier around much of the West Bank was illegal and Israeli settlements had been established in violation of international law. Israel rejected this judgement.
