The Hague judges have taken a clear stance on settlement construction and occupation. Israel will ignore their opinion. But it will have to live with certain consequences.
A legal opinion from the UN’s highest court is causing additional problems with unforeseeable consequences for the State of Israel, which is involved in military conflicts on several fronts. The occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal and must be ended as soon as possible, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague has determined.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres wants to forward the report immediately to the UN General Assembly, which will then have to decide on how to proceed, said one of his spokesmen in New York.
Israel conquered and occupied the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War of 1967. The Palestinians claim these areas for their own state, which should be established alongside Israel and which most countries in the world, including Germany, still support today. Israel left Gaza in 2005, but continues to control the borders by land, sea and air.
Report: Israel should end occupation as soon as possible
“The continued presence of the State of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful,” said court president Nawaf Salam. “The State of Israel has an obligation to end its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territories as soon as possible,” said a summary of the non-binding legal opinion published by the court on Friday.
Furthermore, Israel is obliged to immediately stop new settler activities in the Palestinian territories and to remove the approximately 700,000 settlers from the territories. The states of the world must not support any actions that contribute to maintaining Israel’s “illegal presence” in the occupied territories or support settler activities.
Netanyahu speaks of “wrong decision”, Abbas of “triumph of justice”
Israel reacted angrily to the report: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on X: “The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own country. No wrong decision in The Hague will distort the historical truth, just as the legality of Israeli settlements throughout the entire territory of our homeland cannot be challenged.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on the other hand, welcomed the report. It was “a triumph of justice, a confirmation that the Israeli occupation is illegal.” Abbas called on the international community to “make the occupying power Israel end its occupation and its colonial project completely and immediately, without conditions or exceptions.” This was announced by the presidential office in Ramallah. The Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip praised the document, which had “exposed the fascist system of settlement construction.”
Actual annexation of further territories completed
The report points out that Israel has effectively annexed large areas through the construction of settlements and various administrative acts. It also deals with the discriminatory and degrading consequences of the occupation for the Palestinian population. Israel does not prosecute or punish settler violence against Palestinian citizens. Palestinians are forced to leave the land they cultivate. They are also denied access to water.
The document sees the numerous restrictions on the civil rights of Palestinians in the occupied territories and their unequal treatment compared to Jewish settlers as violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Convention against Racism.
Report could have high explosive power.
Although it is not legally binding, the legal opinion has potentially explosive power. International pressure on Israel to end the attacks in the Gaza Strip is expected to continue to rise. The opinion is also likely to fuel the pro-Palestinian protest movement worldwide.
The ICJ’s legally non-binding opinions are perceived as “highly valid representations of international law as it is,” said law professor Eliav Leiblich of Tel Aviv University to the US television channel CNN. Civil organizations could, for example, bring the matter before national courts and demand that they prohibit the export of weapons that could be used in the occupied territories.
Drone attack out of nowhere
Meanwhile, there is dismay in Israel that a combat drone launched by the Houthi militia in Yemen was able to reach the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv undetected. The explosive-laden missile exploded on Friday night not far from the densely built-up Mediterranean shore and killed a 50-year-old man in his quarters. Ten other people were injured, according to emergency services. The Houthi militia in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack.
The missile hit not far from the Tel Aviv branch of the US embassy. The US embassy has been located in Jerusalem since 2018. The Israeli military believes that the Tel Aviv embassy building was not specifically targeted, but that the drone flew over it by chance.
Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the flying weapon was an Iranian Samad-3 drone modified for long-distance flight. According to Israeli estimates, it flew about 2,000 kilometers, crossing the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula from the Red Sea and turning over the Mediterranean Sea on a course toward Tel Aviv.
Residents in the city heard a loud bang shortly after 3 a.m. (local time) and a little later the sirens of emergency vehicles. The usual air raid alarm had not sounded. The army spoke of human error. According to media reports, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, called on the UN Security Council to condemn the Houthi attack and to take action before the situation in the region could escalate further.
The Houthis, who are supported and armed by Iran, have been repeatedly attacking shipping in the Red Sea since the outbreak of the Gaza war last October. They have also occasionally fired rockets at southern Israel, but these have always been intercepted or have landed over open terrain.
Battle in the north
The Shiite militia Hezbollah increased its shelling of areas in northern Israel. The military has identified 65 missiles coming from Lebanon that entered Israeli territory, the army announced on its Telegram channel. Some of the missiles were intercepted by Israeli air defenses, the rest hit uninhabited areas. No one was injured or killed. In return, the army attacked Hezbollah’s launch pads and weapons depots in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah confirmed its attacks and described them as retaliation for Israeli bombings the previous day in the eastern Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon that killed two senior fighters – a Hezbollah man and a Lebanon-based cadre of the Palestinian Hamas, which is allied with Hezbollah.
Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia have been fighting almost daily since the start of the Gaza war. There have been deaths on both sides. Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran, says it is acting out of solidarity with Hamas, which is also active in Lebanon. It has long been feared that the conflict could spread regionally.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
