By Janet Ekstract NEW YORK – On Thursday, the human rights organization Amnesty International accused Israel of torturing Palestinian prisoners and mistreating them. On Friday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled Israel’s presence in the Palestinian occupied territories is “unlawful” – calling on Israel to end its occupation and ordered settlement construction stop immediately. The ICJ issued an unprecedented, sweeping condemnation of Israel’s rule over the lands it captured 57 years ago. The ruling was issued from the 15-judge panel at the ICJ with the judges citing a broad range of Israeli policies they say violates international law. These included 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. Analysts have pointed out that the depth of such a decision could impact the international community to move toward unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu denounced the decision, citing the territory as a “Jewish homeland” while the ICJ reiterated that Israel has no right to sovereignty in the territories, has violated international laws against acquiring territory by force and is impeding Palestinians’ right to self-determination. The ICJ further stated that other nations are obliged not to “render aid or assistance in maintaining” Israel’s presence in the territories. It added that Israel must remove existing settlements and end current settlement construction. The ICJ decision is contained in a more than 80-page opinion that was read bout by ICJ President Nawaf Salam. In part, it reads that Israel’s “abuse of its status as the occupying power” renders its “presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, unlawful” with the ICJ stating that Israel’s presence in those territories must end as “rapidly as possible.” The ICJ opinion was requested by the U.N. General Assembly after a Palestinian request as a result of Israel’s military assault on Gaza in response to Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on October 7. South Africa brought its own case to the ICJ saying that Israel’s campaign in Gaza is equal to genocide, which has been echoed by progressive Jewish organizations, a prominent Jewish-American Orthodox rabbi as well as a well-known Jewish-American professor from Stanford and prominent political analyst, author and professor Norman Finkelstein who has been particularly outspoken on Israel’s actions in Gaza. Despite both Israel and the U.S. denying Israel’s military assault in Gaza is a genocide, 12 former Biden administration officials resigned over the U.S. policy on Israel and the Gaza war, stating that the U.S. government’s actions endanger U.S. national security while the policies further destabilized the region, and “put a target on America’s back.” An adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Riad Malki, called the opinion “a watershed moment for Palestine, for justice and for international law.”
