Palestinians have welcomed the landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories violates international law.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has called the UN court’s decision “historic” and said Israel must be compelled to implement it, while the Palestinian foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, called it a “watershed moment”.
Jordan’s foreign minister also welcomed the ICJ decision. “It is a clear ruling on the side of Palestinians people’s right to justice, freedom & statehood,” Ayman Safadi in a post on X.
The UN court on Friday ordered Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories “as rapidly as possible” and make full reparations for its “internationally wrongful acts” in a sweeping and damning advisory opinion that says the occupation violates international law.
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The UN secretary general, António Guterres, would shortly transmit the advisory opinion to the 193-member world body and “it is for the general assembly to decide how to proceed in the matter”, UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said.
The ICJ’s opinion said Israel should pay reparations to Palestinians for damages caused by the occupation. It also found that the UN security council, the general assembly and all states had an obligation not to recognise the occupation as legal and not to give aid or support toward maintaining it.
The court’s findings are not binding but carry weight under international law.
Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the court’s opinion as “fundamentally wrong” and one-sided, and repeated its stance that a political settlement in the region could only be reached by negotiations.
“The Jewish nation cannot be an occupier in its own land,” Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Elsewhere, US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said a long-sought ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was within sight.
Speaking at the Aspen security forum in Colorado on Friday, he said: “I believe we’re inside the 10-yard line and driving toward the goalline in getting an agreement that would produce a ceasefire, get the hostages home and put us on a better track to trying to build lasting peace and stability.
“There remains some issues that need to be resolved, that need to be negotiated. We’re in the midst of doing exactly that.”
The United States has been working with Qatar and Egypt to try to arrange a ceasefire to free hostages held since the October 7th Hamas attacks, and get more humanitarian aid into the enclave devastated by Israeli air strikes.
Mr Netanyahu is set to travel to Washington next week and address a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday. He is expected to meet Joe Biden if the US president has recovered from Covid-19 by then, the White House said. – Guardian