The International Court of Justice, the principal judicial arm of the United Nations located in The Hague, issued a non-binding, 83-page opinion on Friday declaring Israeli “occupation” of Judea and Samaria to be “unlawful.”
“The court reaffirms that the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the régime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law,” the U.N. high court stated.
Israel is “obliged to bring an end to its presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible,” the court added. Julia Sebutinde, of Uganda, the court’s vice-president, was the only one to dissent on all of the counts, which passed either 14-1, 14-3, 12-3 or 11-4.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the ruling on Friday.
“The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land, including in our eternal capital Jerusalem nor in Judea and Samaria, our historical homeland,” he said. “No absurd opinion in The Hague can deny this historical truth or the legal right of Israelis to live in their own communities in our ancestral home.”
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote that the “fundamentally wrong” opinion “mixes politics and law” and “is completely detached from the reality of the Middle East.”
“It injects the politics of the corridors of the U.N. in New York into the courtrooms of the ICJ in The Hague,” the ministry said.
Israel Gantz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, stated that the court’s opinion “deserves condemnation and denunciation from all countries around the world.” He also called on Netanyahu to “immediately begin applying sovereignty to Judea and Samaria.”
“This is a decision contrary to justice, contrary to the Bible, morality and international law,” he said. “This decision is intended to bring Hamas terrorists closer to the beds of our children and women in the center of the country and to eliminate the State of Israel.”
“The Western Wall, the Cave of the Patriarchs, Jerusalem and all of Judea, Samaria, Binyamin and the Jordan Valley are the land of our ancestors,” Gantz added. “No opinion will erase the historical truth or undermine the deep connection between the people of Israel and its country.”
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas “warmly welcomed” the court’s opinion, which he called a “triumph for justice,” and “urged the international community to compel Israel, the occupying power, to fully and immediately end its occupation and colonial project without conditions or exceptions.”
‘Politically motivated’
Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO of the International Legal Forum, told JNS that the “obscene” decision will fuel antisemitism and reward Hamas for its Oct. 7 terror attack. The opinion “is yet another utterly baseless and politically motivated decision of the court, masquerading as a legal opinion, that will only further erode the ICJ’s credibility and place it squarely as a tool of Palestinian lawfare,” he said.
“Albeit non-binding, this opinion, delivered by the Hezbollah-controlled Lebanese presiding judge, with a pre-existing deep-seated history of anti-Israel bias, is rooted in historical revision and denial of the Jewish people their inalienable connection to their holy sites, including Jerusalem,” the international human rights lawyer added.
Anne Herzberg, legal adviser at NGO Monitor, told JNS that the court’s decision “must be seen within the context of the ongoing war to eliminate Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.”
“In addition to military action in every conflict, there is also a political warfare component, and this opinion is a clear part of this campaign,” Herzberg said. “While less than half of U.N. member states sought this opinion, the Lebanese-led court has issued a wide-ranging, ahistorical opinion that completely erases the security reality, attacks Jewish self-determination rights and cultural heritage and eviscerates Oslo and the Middle East Peace Process.”
The opinion “will likely lead to further antisemitic violence which is surging globally,” she added. “For all of these reasons, countries of conscience should forcefully reject it.”