Hearings have began on the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Monday in a landmark case by which 52 international locations are collectively presenting proof in regards to the authorized penalties of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
The case stems from a request from the United Nations Normal Meeting (UNGA) on December 30, 2022. A majority of UNGA members voted to seek the court’s opinion on the authorized penalties of the persevering with Israeli occupation of Palestine. The hearings will final till February 26.
A panel of 15 judges is predicted to take about six months to situation a non-binding, advisory opinion on the request, which additionally asks them to contemplate the authorized standing of the occupation and its penalties.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the legitimacy of the continued proceedings at The Hague in an announcement launched by his workplace on Monday.
Netanyahu appeared to recommend he would disregard any ruling towards Israel by the ICJ when he added that Israel will keep full “safety management” over areas which are west of the Jordan River. “After all, this contains Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip,” the assertion added. “Judea and Samaria” refers back to the West Financial institution.
What has occurred within the hearings to date?
On Monday, Palestine introduced its case on the ICJ. “We name on you to verify that Israel’s presence within the occupied Palestinian territory is illegitimate,” Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian consultant to the United Nations, mentioned throughout an emotional speech.
“A discovering from this distinguished court docket … would contribute to bringing [the occupation] to a right away finish, paving a option to a simply and lasting peace,” he mentioned. “A future by which no Palestinians and no Israelis are killed. A future by which two states dwell aspect by aspect in peace and safety.”
Worldwide regulation skilled Paul Reichler, representing Palestine within the hearings, instructed the court docket that the insurance policies of Israel’s authorities “are aligned to an unprecedented extent with the objectives of the Israeli settler motion to broaden long-term management over the occupied West Financial institution, together with East Jerusalem, and in follow to additional combine these areas throughout the territory” of Israel. He deemed the occupation “gravely illegal”.
On Tuesday, different international locations together with South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Belgium introduced arguments. Representatives from the international locations condemned Israeli occupation, deeming it violent and unlawful.
On Wednesday, a number of extra nations together with the US, Russia, Egypt and Hungary have been giving their factors of view.
Canadian officers introduced on the final minute that they might not be presenting in oral proceedings on Tuesday, however didn’t give a purpose. The court docket is predicted to listen to various opinions, nonetheless.
The way in which by which every nation voted within the UN Normal Meeting within the 2022 vote that prompted this case could also be indicative of their strategy in upcoming days in The Hague. The USA, United Kingdom and Canada voted towards referring the case, whereas Brazil, Spain and Switzerland abstained.
What constitutes an ‘occupation’?
Article 42 of the 1907 Hague Laws, pertaining to conduct in warfare, states that “territory is taken into account occupied when it’s really positioned underneath the authority of the hostile military”. The laws state that occupation is barely permitted to be provisional, short-term management and is barely meant to final whereas armed battle lasts.
Worldwide regulation, together with the Hague Laws and the Geneva Conference, which pertains to conduct throughout armed battle and protects civilians not participating in hostilities, units out provisions that defend the rights of these residing underneath occupation.
Is Israel breaking worldwide regulation on occupation?
Underneath worldwide regulation, an occupying energy is meant to introduce as few adjustments as doable and never alter the established order of the territory from earlier than it was occupied. The occupier can also be supposed to stick to laws together with the safety of occupied peoples’ property and permitting the movement of humanitarian support.
An occupying energy mustn’t transfer its personal folks into the territory it’s occupying, underneath worldwide regulation.
Israel has been criticised on many events for failing to stick to those ideas throughout its occupation of the Palestinian territories. Over the many years, for instance, an increasing number of unlawful settlements have been constructed and there are actually round 750,000 Israeli settlers residing on Palestinian land.
Palestinians who’re arrested and charged with crimes within the West Financial institution are tried in army courts, fairly than civil ones. There are additionally many 1000’s of Palestinian prisoners being held in detention without charge.
Moreover, worldwide humanitarian companies say Israel has prevented humanitarian aid trucks from reaching elements of Gaza.
How did the occupation of the West Financial institution come about?
Israel occupied the West Financial institution and East Jerusalem after the Six-Day War in 1967. These areas have been previously underneath Jordanian management.
Israel made its annexation of East Jerusalem official when it handed the Jerusalem Regulation in 1980, stating that East and West Jerusalem mixed have been the capital of Israel.
Regardless of a number of peace efforts such because the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2000 Camp David negotiations since then, Israel has not withdrawn from the West Financial institution. The Oslo Accords resulted within the creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which was imagined to be short-term. The West Financial institution was divided into Areas A, B and C in 1995, denoting how a lot management the PA has in every. A ultimate settlement, which was imagined to be reached 5 years later, by no means got here into existence.
Was Israel occupying Gaza earlier than the conflict started final October?
Israel occupied Gaza, which had been underneath the management of Egypt, in 1967.
Nonetheless, in 2005, Israel technically withdrew from Gaza underneath then-prime minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan, pulling out 9,000 Israeli settlers, when the state of affairs there turned too tense.
Israel and its supporters, due to this fact, declare it was not occupying Gaza.
Nonetheless, the Gaza Strip has been underneath an Israeli land, air and sea blockade since 2007, which is why the UN, Amnesty Worldwide and different support organisations and think-tanks nonetheless confer with Gaza as an “occupied territory”.
Does Israel’s insurance policies in direction of Palestinians represent apartheid?
On the ICJ hearings this week, South Africa accused Israel of practising an “excessive type of apartheid” towards Palestinians. It isn’t alone.
Many commentators have used the phrase “apartheid” in reference to Israel’s occupation of Palestine. The phrase actually means “apartness” in Afrikaans – a coverage of separation. Apartheid was applied towards Black residents of South Africa from the Nineteen Forties till its abolition within the early Nineties.
Based on the 1998 Rome Statute to the Worldwide Felony Courtroom and the 1973 Worldwide Conference on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, apartheid consists of three foremost components.
- An intent to take care of domination by one racial group over one other.
- A context of systematic oppression by one racial group over one other.
- Inhumane acts.
Amongst those that describe the Israeli remedy of Palestinians as “apartheid” are Amnesty Worldwide and Human Rights Watch. When Amnesty issued a report in 2022, its secretary basic, Agnes Callamard, acknowledged: “Whether or not they dwell in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the remainder of the West Financial institution, or Israel itself, Palestinians are handled as an inferior racial group and systematically disadvantaged of their rights.”
The report discovered that insurance policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion throughout all of the territories underneath its management “clearly quantity to apartheid”.
Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories face not less than 65 discriminatory legal guidelines, in accordance with Adalah, a human rights regulation group in Israel.
What’s life like underneath Israeli occupation?
Underneath occupation, the West Financial institution is rife with army checkpoints and patrols. Motion by Palestinian residents is severely restricted underneath Israel’s allow regime within the West Financial institution and for motion out and in of Gaza. Underneath this method, Palestinians are required to acquire permits to maneuver between the West Financial institution, Gaza and East Jerusalem. These permits may be extraordinarily troublesome to acquire. Palestinians are sometimes subjected to violence and theft from settlers with little or no recourse to justice.
Army raids, roadblocks, violence by settlers and curfews have develop into rather more extreme since October 7, and Palestinians live underneath curfews – typically shot at by armed settlers who’re supported by Israeli forces in the event that they go away their houses and even transfer too near their home windows.
Israeli forces repeatedly destroy infrastructure together with personal property within the West Financial institution. Sometimes, the explanations given for this embody the proprietor not having the proper permits – which are sometimes practically unattainable to acquire – to personal the property.
Between 2009 and February this 12 months, Israeli authorities demolished 10,472 Palestinian-owned buildings within the West Financial institution, displacing 15,825 Palestinians, in accordance with the UN Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Who’re the settlers?
Unlawful Israeli settlers have additionally been inflicting the displacement of Palestinians, by taking up land and farmland within the West Financial institution and destroying Palestinian property, for many years.
On the primary day of the ICJ hearings, authorized consultant Reichler argued that Israel’s objective is to completely purchase Palestinian territory, which is why forces and settlers violently expel Palestinian residents from their houses.
Whereas the Israeli authorities formally stopped constructing new settlements within the West Financial institution after signing the Oslo Accords in 1993, the settlements continued to broaden. In 2021, the federal government began constructing settlements once more.
Now, the Israeli authorities actively allows settlements by offering settlers with monetary incentives to maneuver into Palestinian territory, together with decrease prices of residing. The federal government itself has built and funded homes for settlements within the West Financial institution.
The variety of Israeli settlers residing in Palestinian territory has dramatically elevated over the previous few years. As of February 11 this 12 months, the variety of settlers within the West Financial institution, excluding East Jerusalem, stands at 517,407, up from 502,991 a 12 months earlier.
The Israeli settlements are thought-about unlawful underneath worldwide regulation as they violate the Fourth Geneva Conference, which bans an occupying energy from transferring its personal inhabitants to the world it occupies. Settlements additionally exist in East Jerusalem, the place some 350,000 Palestinians dwell.
The place is the separation wall?
In 2002, Israel constructed a 708km (440 mile)-long separation wall (additionally identified in Arabic as “the apartheid wall”) by means of the West Financial institution.
Solely round 15 % of the wall follows the 1967 Inexperienced Line, the demarcation line between Israel and the West Financial institution as acknowledged within the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and its neighbours – Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria – following the 1948 Arab–Israeli Conflict. The remainder (85 % of the wall) encroaches into Palestinian territory.
In 2004, the ICJ made a nonbinding ruling that the development of this wall was in violation of worldwide regulation. It referred to as for its dismantling and ordered Israel to pay reparations for any injury attributable to its building. 20 years after that ruling, nonetheless, the wall still stands, slicing up Palestinian communities and slicing residents off from their lands, important infrastructure and companies.
Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who displays settlement exercise within the northern West Financial institution, instructed Al Jazeera in 2019 that Israel’s violation of the ruling demonstrated that it considers itself above worldwide regulation and was unafraid to indicate this to the worldwide group.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem on the finish of the 1967 conflict. It made its annexation of East Jerusalem official when it handed the Jerusalem Regulation in 1980, saying that East and West Jerusalem mixed have been the capital of Israel.
In 1980, nonetheless, the UN Safety Council (UNSC) dominated the Jerusalem Regulation “null and void” in UNSC Decision 478.
Many of the worldwide group nonetheless considers East Jerusalem and the West Financial institution to be Palestinian territory illegally occupied by Isreal. Palestinians need East Jerusalem to be the capital of any future Palestinian state.
No main nation on the earth recognises unified Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, excluding the US. On December 6, 2017, former US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem because the capital and moved the US embassy there. Whereas a majority of nations have their embassies in Tel Aviv, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo and Papua New Guinea even have their embassies in West Jerusalem.
Russia recognises West Jerusalem because the capital of Israel, and East Jerusalem as “the capital of the long run Palestinian state”. In 2022, Australia reversed its recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Israel additionally unilaterally annexed the Syrian Golan Heights in 1981, a transfer recognised in 2019 by the US, the one nation on the earth to take action.
In 1988, the UN Normal Meeting recognised Palestine’s declaration of independence. In 2012, the UNGA handed a decision granting Palestine “non-member observer state” standing, successfully acknowledging it as a sovereign state.
The United Nations has 193 member states. Of these, 162 (84 %) recognise Israel and 138 (72 %) recognise the State of Palestine.