The International Court of Justice said on Friday that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem violated international law, the first time the world’s highest court has laid out its stance on an issue that has been the subject of debates and resolutions at the United Nations for decades.
The court was issuing an advisory opinion that, while not binding, carries authority and legal weight. It is unlikely to shape Israeli policy but could affect international opinion.
“The 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’s president, Nawaf Salam, said as he issued the opinion at the Peace Palace in The Hague.
Friday’s pronouncement received heightened attention because of the war in Gaza, which began more than nine months ago, and because of a separate genocide case brought in the same court by South Africa against Israel in December over its conduct in the war.
In January, the court ordered Israel to restrain its attacks in Gaza, and in May it ordered the country to immediately halt its military offensive in the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza.
The U.N. General Assembly in 2022 asked the court for its opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation” of territories captured in the 1967 Middle East war, including the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
Israel regards the occupied West Bank as disputed territory and wants the future status of it to be decided in negotiations. It has allowed hundreds of thousands of Jews to settle there over the past decades. Israel has annexed East Jerusalem in a move that did not garner widespread international recognition. And it withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but blockaded the territory, along with Egypt, for 17 years after Hamas seized control of it in 2007.
The court held hearings in February at the Peace Palace. Israel did not appear at that session but filed a submission rejecting the validity of the proceedings as biased. The Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, told the court that Israel had subjected Palestinians to decades of discrimination, leaving them with the choice of “displacement, subjugation or death.”
Over the course of several days, representatives of more than 50 countries, an unusually high number for the court, addressed the hearings. Most sided with the Palestinian representatives. But a few speakers at the court, including those from the United States, Britain and Hungary — among Israel’s traditional allies — sided with Israel.
A U.S. State Department official argued before the court that Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians were determined by its “very real security needs.”
One focal point of Friday’s case was Israel’s settlement policy in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as the government’s tolerance of violent land grabs by Jewish settlers.
Every Israeli government has allowed some Israeli construction in the territories, but the Netanyahu government has expanded the program and announced plans for thousands of new housing units. More than 400,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank since 1967.
The court was issuing an advisory opinion that, while not binding, carries authority and legal weight. It is unlikely to shape Israeli policy but could affect international opinion.
“The 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’s president, Nawaf Salam, said as he issued the opinion at the Peace Palace in The Hague.
Friday’s pronouncement received heightened attention because of the war in Gaza, which began more than nine months ago, and because of a separate genocide case brought in the same court by South Africa against Israel in December over its conduct in the war.
In January, the court ordered Israel to restrain its attacks in Gaza, and in May it ordered the country to immediately halt its military offensive in the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza.
The U.N. General Assembly in 2022 asked the court for its opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation” of territories captured in the 1967 Middle East war, including the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
Israel regards the occupied West Bank as disputed territory and wants the future status of it to be decided in negotiations. It has allowed hundreds of thousands of Jews to settle there over the past decades. Israel has annexed East Jerusalem in a move that did not garner widespread international recognition. And it withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but blockaded the territory, along with Egypt, for 17 years after Hamas seized control of it in 2007.
The court held hearings in February at the Peace Palace. Israel did not appear at that session but filed a submission rejecting the validity of the proceedings as biased. The Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, told the court that Israel had subjected Palestinians to decades of discrimination, leaving them with the choice of “displacement, subjugation or death.”
Over the course of several days, representatives of more than 50 countries, an unusually high number for the court, addressed the hearings. Most sided with the Palestinian representatives. But a few speakers at the court, including those from the United States, Britain and Hungary — among Israel’s traditional allies — sided with Israel.
A U.S. State Department official argued before the court that Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians were determined by its “very real security needs.”
One focal point of Friday’s case was Israel’s settlement policy in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as the government’s tolerance of violent land grabs by Jewish settlers.
Every Israeli government has allowed some Israeli construction in the territories, but the Netanyahu government has expanded the program and announced plans for thousands of new housing units. More than 400,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank since 1967.
