Thorough, detailed and all encompassing, the international court of justice’s advisory ruling on the illegality of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and settlement building represents a stark refutation of Israel’s claims, and will have a profound impact for years to come.
The court called for Israel to rapidly quit the occupied territories and ruled Palestinians were due reparations for the harm of 57 years of an occupation that systematically discriminates against them.
The ruling also stood as a rebuke to Israel’s argument that the ICJ had no standing to consider the issue on the grounds that UN resolutions, as well as bilateral Israeli-Palestinian agreements, had established that the correct framework for resolving the conflict should be political, not legal.
Effectively rejecting that argument, the court asserted that international law applies regardless of the decades of failed political efforts to reach a lasting peace agreement, not least as Israel has continued with its settlement-building.
While the individual paragraphs applying to each breach of international law – and each inconsistency – were not surprising, taken in its entirety the ruling offers a profound challenge to governments, including the UK and US, that had for years soft-pedalled on Israel’s occupation policies, criticising settlement building but until recently doing little practical about it.
While non-binding, the ruling will provide ample ammunition for government lawyers already actively examining future sanctions against those linked to Israeli settlement.
The original article contains 625 words, the summary contains 232 words. Saved 63%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Thorough, detailed and all encompassing, the international court of justice’s advisory ruling on the illegality of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and settlement building represents a stark refutation of Israel’s claims, and will have a profound impact for years to come.
The court called for Israel to rapidly quit the occupied territories and ruled Palestinians were due reparations for the harm of 57 years of an occupation that systematically discriminates against them.
The ruling also stood as a rebuke to Israel’s argument that the ICJ had no standing to consider the issue on the grounds that UN resolutions, as well as bilateral Israeli-Palestinian agreements, had established that the correct framework for resolving the conflict should be political, not legal.
Effectively rejecting that argument, the court asserted that international law applies regardless of the decades of failed political efforts to reach a lasting peace agreement, not least as Israel has continued with its settlement-building.
While the individual paragraphs applying to each breach of international law – and each inconsistency – were not surprising, taken in its entirety the ruling offers a profound challenge to governments, including the UK and US, that had for years soft-pedalled on Israel’s occupation policies, criticising settlement building but until recently doing little practical about it.
While non-binding, the ruling will provide ample ammunition for government lawyers already actively examining future sanctions against those linked to Israeli settlement.
The original article contains 625 words, the summary contains 232 words. Saved 63%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!