The results of the advisory opinion are not legally binding (representative)
The Hague, Netherlands:
The United Nations’ top court on Monday kicked off a week of hearings on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, with more than 50 countries set to address the judges.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Maliki will be the first to address legal proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
In 2022, the UN General Assembly asked the court to provide advisory or non-binding opinions on the occupation.
While Israel has ignored such opinions in the past, it is likely to increase political pressure on its ongoing war in Gaza, which has killed some 29,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7, according to Gaza health officials.
Countries scheduled to attend the hearing include the United States, Israel’s strongest supporter, China, Russia, South Africa and Egypt. Israel will not, despite its written submissions.
The hearings are part of a Palestinian push for international legal bodies to scrutinize Israel’s behavior, which has taken on new urgency since Hamas launched an attack in Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people and Israel’s military response.
Meanwhile, concerns are growing over an Israeli ground offensive against the Gaza city of Rafah, the last refuge for more than a million Palestinians after they fled to the south of the enclave to avoid Israeli attacks.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 war – and the Palestinians hope to establish a state in the historic Palestinian region. It withdrew its troops from Gaza in 2005 but still controls its borders along with neighboring Egypt.
This is the second time the UN General Assembly has asked the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, to provide an advisory opinion on the occupied Palestinian territories.
In July 2004, the court ruled that Israel’s separation wall in the West Bank violated international law and should be demolished, but the wall still stands today.
The judges are now being asked to examine Israel’s “occupation, settlement and annexation… including measures aimed at changing the demographic composition, character and status of the holy city of Jerusalem, as well as its related discriminatory legislation and measures.”
Since 1967, Israel has significantly expanded Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a move that Palestinians say undermines the process of establishing a viable Palestinian state. It also annexed east Jerusalem, a move not approved by most countries.
The Assembly also asked the ICJ’s 15-judge panel to make recommendations on how these policies and practices “affect the legal status of the occupation” and what legal consequences that status has for all states and the United Nations.
The advisory opinion process is separate from South Africa’s genocide case brought to the World Court against Israel for alleged violations of the 1948 Genocide Convention in Gaza. In late January, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel in the case to make every effort to prevent genocide in Gaza.
The ICJ said the advisory opinion’s findings were not legally binding but had “enormous legal force and moral authority”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
