{"id":42618,"date":"2024-07-19T19:16:25","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T14:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/?p=42618"},"modified":"2024-07-19T19:16:25","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T14:16:25","slug":"icj-says-israels-settlement-policies-violate-international-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/world\/icj-says-israels-settlement-policies-violate-international-law\/","title":{"rendered":"ICJ says Israel’s settlement policies violate international law"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE HAGUE (AP): The top United Nations court<\/a> said Israel\u2019s settlement policy in the West Bank and east Jerusalem violates international law, as it delivered a non-binding advisory opinion on the legality of Israel\u2019s 57-year occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state, a ruling that could have more effect on international opinion than it will on Israeli policies.<\/p>\n

International Court of Justice<\/a> President Nawaf Salam was expected to take about an hour to read out the full opinion of the panel, which is made up of 15 judges from around the world.<\/p>\n

In part of the opinion, he said the panel had found that \u201cthe transfer by Israel of settlers to the West Bank and Jerusalem as well as Israel\u2019s maintenance of their presence, is contrary to article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.\u201d The court also noted with \u201cgrave concern\u201d that Israel\u2019s settlement policy has been expanding.<\/p>\n

The court also found that Israel\u2019s use of natural resources was \u201cinconsistent\u201d with its obligations under international law as an occupying power.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s hearing comes against the backdrop of Israel\u2019s devastating 10-month military assault on Gaza, which was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel. In a separate case, the International Court of Justice is considering a South African claim that Israel\u2019s campaign in Gaza amounts to\u00a0genocide, a claim that Israel vehemently denies.<\/p>\n

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three areas for an independent state.<\/p>\n

Israel considers the West Bank to be disputed territory, whose future should be decided in negotiations, while it has moved population there in settlements to solidify its hold. It has annexed east Jerusalem in a move that is not internationally recognized, while it withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but maintained a blockade of the territory after Hamas took power in 2007. The international community generally considers all three areas to be occupied territory.<\/p>\n

At hearings in February, then-Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki accused Israel of apartheid and urged the United Nation\u2019s top court to declare that Israel\u2019s occupation of lands sought by the Palestinians is illegal and must end immediately and unconditionally for any hope for a two-state future to survive.<\/p>\n

Israel, which normally considers the United Nations and international tribunals as unfair and biased, did not send a legal team to the hearings. But it submitted written comments, saying that the questions put to the court are prejudiced and \u201cfail to recognize Israel\u2019s right and duty to protect its citizens,\u201d address Israeli security concerns, or acknowledge Israel-Palestinian agreements to negotiate issues, including \u201cthe permanent status of the territory, security arrangements, settlements, and borders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Palestinians presented arguments in February along with 49 other nations and three international organizations.<\/p>\n

Israel has built well over 100 settlements, according to the anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now. The West Bank settler population has grown by more than 15% in the past five years to more than 500,000 Israelis, according to a pro-settler group.
\nIsrael also has annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city to be its capital. An additional 200,000 Israelis live in settlements built in east Jerusalem that Israel considers to be neighborhoods of its capital.\u00a0Palestinian residents of the city face systematic discrimination,\u00a0making it difficult for them to build new homes or expand existing ones.<\/p>\n

The international community considers all settlements to be illegal or obstacles to peace since they are built on lands sought by the Palestinians for their state.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s hard-line government is dominated by settlers and their political supporters. Netanyahu has given his finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, a former settler leader,\u00a0unprecedented authority\u00a0over settlement policy. Smotrich has used this position to cement Israel\u2019s control over the West Bank by pushing forward plans to build more settlement homes and to legalize outposts.<\/p>\n

Authorities recently approved the appropriation of 12.7 square kilometers (nearly 5 square miles) of land in the Jordan Valley, a strategic piece of land deep inside the West Bank, according to a copy of the order obtained by The Associated Press. Data from Peace Now, the tracking group, indicate it was the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo accords at the start of the peace process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE HAGUE (AP): The top United Nations court said Israel\u2019s settlement policy in the West Bank and east Jerusalem violates international law, as it delivered a non-binding advisory opinion on the legality of Israel\u2019s 57-year occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state, a ruling that could have more effect on international opinion than it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":42619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5754,10114,17445],"class_list":["post-42618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-israel","tag-palestine","tag-international-court-of-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42620,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42618\/revisions\/42620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}