Arab governments call the ICJ to declare Israel’s occupation illegal.
THE HAGUE:
Arab states urged international judges on Monday to rule the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories illegal and Turkiye described the occupation as “the real obstacle to peace” on the final day of hearings in a case examining its legal status.
More than fifty governments have presented submissions to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in response to a request made by the UN General Assembly in 2022 for a non-binding ruling about the legal ramifications of the Israeli occupation.
Ahmet Yildiz, Turkiye’s deputy foreign minister, said the judges on the sixth and last day of the proceedings that occupation was the primary source of unrest in the area.
He called the occupation of Palestinian territory “the real obstacle to peace” and urged the judges to declare it illegal, saying that “the unfolding situation after October 7 proves once again that, without addressing the root cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there can be no peace in the region.”
Ankara describes Tel Aviv’s act as ‘real obstacle to peace’
Israel, which is not attending the sessions, has described the questions put to the court as biased and stated that the court’s presence would be detrimental to reaching a negotiated settlement.
International pressure has also been applied to Palestinian groups on their disagreements about how to respond to Israel’s occupation, the Gaza War, and the potential democratic order that may emerge.
In a statement read aloud by a spokesman earlier on Monday, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary general of the Arab League, called the occupation “an affront to international justice.”
The League called upon the ICJ, also known as the World Court, to “confirm the illegality of this occupation and unambiguously rule on the legal consequences for all parties, especially those who turn a blind eye, facilitate, assist, or participate in any way in perpetuating this illegal situation”.
Last week, Palestinian representatives asked the judges to declare Israel’s occupation of their territory illegal and said the court’s opinion could help reach a two-state solution to decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has now devastated Gaza.
Israel defies UN court order
Meanwhile, two human rights groups on Monday accused Israel of further limiting humanitarian aid to Gaza despite an order from the UN’s top court.
The ICJ had one month ago said Israel must do everything to prevent genocidal acts in the besieged territory.
It must also take “immediate and effective measures” for aid provision, the World Court said.
But Israeli authorities have “failed to take even the bare minimum steps to comply” with the ICJ ruling issued on January 26, Amnesty International said.
Both Amnesty and Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the number of aid trucks entering Gaza had decreased by roughly one-third since the ruling, which came in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of breaching the UN Genocide Convention.
“The Israeli government is starving” Gaza’s 2.4 million Palestinians, “putting them in even more peril than before the World Court’s binding order,” said Omar Shakir, HRW’s Israel and Palestine director.
The United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, said there was a “50 percent reduction” in humanitarian aid entering Gaza during February compared to January. “Aid was supposed to increase not decrease to address the huge needs of two million Palestinians in desperate living conditions,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said on X, formerly Twitter.
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