‘Israel's settlement policy violates international law,’ UN court says

Israel's settlement policy violates international law, according to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The United Nations' highest court criticised several aspects of the policy in a hearing on Friday. For instance, the country has violated rules around the forced displacement of people in occupied territory. The advisory opinion is historic but non-binding.

Israel must return illegally occupied land and property, according to the ICJ. Anyone displaced by the occupation should be given the chance to return. If that is not possible, people should be compensated. The court finds that those rights go back decades, to 1967.

The court also finds that countries should distinguish between Israel and the occupied territories and that countries and international organisations should not “render aid or assistance in maintaining” Israel’s presence in the territories.

When countries occupy territories, they are bound by many rules. For instance, an occupation may not become permanent, as this would constitute annexation. According to the court, Israeli policy shows an intention to stay there for a longer period of time. For instance, Palestinians are driven out of areas in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and are not given the chance to return. Natural resources are also being exploited and infrastructure is being built by Israel.

The opinion comes at the request of the UN General Assembly. The UN asked the court in December 2022 to “determine the legal consequences of Israel's continued violation of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination”.

In February this year, the court considered the case and more than 50 countries were heard. It is now up to the General Assembly and the UN Security Council to act on the opinion, the ICJ says.

The office of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, welcomed the court’s decision as “historic” and a “victory for justice”. He said Israel must be compelled to implement it. The office of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that “the Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land – not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, nor in our ancestral lands of Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank]”.

“No false decision in The Hague will distort this historical truth, and similarly, the legality of Israeli settlements in all parts of our homeland cannot be disputed,” it said.

^{Session of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the Netherlands, 19 July 2024 © PHOTO SYLVIA LEDERER/XINHUA}