JOSEP BORRELL, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, yesterday commended the advisory opinion that Israel’s presence in Palestinian territory is unlawful, which was issued by the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) last Friday.
‘The opinion aligns with the positions of the European Union and with United Nations resolutions regarding the status of the occupied Palestinian,’ said Borrell.
‘In a world of increasing violations of international law, it is our moral duty to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to all ICJ decisions,’ Borrell stated.
The ICJ declared last Friday that Israel’s policies in the occupied Palestinian territory amount to annexation, are illegal and should come to an end ‘as rapidly as possible’.
Nawaf Salam, president of the ICJ in The Hague, read out the non-binding advisory opinion issued by the 15-judge panel on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.
The judges pointed to a wide list of policies – including the building and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, use of the area’s natural resources, the annexation and imposition of permanent control over lands and discriminatory policies against Palestinians – all of which it said violated international law.
The court said Israel has no right to sovereignty of the territories, is violating international laws against acquiring territory by force and is impeding Palestinians’ right to self-determination.
It said other nations were obliged not to ‘render aid or assistance in maintaining’ Israel’s presence in the territory.
It said Israel must end settlement construction immediately and existing settlements must be removed, according to a summary of the more than 80-page opinion read out by Salam.
Israel’s ‘abuse of its status as the occupying power’ renders its ‘presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful’, the court said.
‘Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law,’ the court said.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Maliki told reporters in The Hague that the ruling signals a ‘watershed moment for Palestine, for justice and for international law’.
‘The ICJ fulfilled its legal and moral duties with this historic ruling. All states must now uphold their clear obligations: no aid, no assistance, no complicity, no money, no arms, no trade, no nothing – no actions of any kind to support Israel’s illegal occupation,’ he said.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the opinion as ‘fundamentally wrong’ and one-sided.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office issued a statement in which it called the ruling a ‘decision of lies’ that distorted the truth and asserted that ‘the Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land’.
