The 193-member United Nations Common Meeting on Friday requested the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ) to offer an opinion on the authorized penalties of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Israel captured the West Financial institution, Gaza and East Jerusalem – areas the Palestinians need for a state – in a 1967 struggle. It withdrew from Gaza in 2005, however, together with neighbouring Egypt, controls the enclave’s borders.
The Hague-based ICJ, also referred to as the World Court docket, is the highest UN courtroom coping with disputes between states. Its rulings are binding, although the ICJ has no energy to implement them.
The request for a courtroom opinion on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories was made in a decision adopted by the Common Meeting with 87 votes in favour. Israel, america and 24 different members voted towards, whereas 53 abstained.
“No worldwide physique can determine that the Jewish persons are ‘occupiers’ in their very own homeland. Any resolution from a judicial physique which receives its mandate from the morally bankrupt and politicized UN is totally illegitimate,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan stated in an announcement forward of the vote.
Israel’s former Prime Minister Yair Lapid – who was changed on Thursday by Benjamin Netanyahu – final month urged world leaders to oppose the transfer, saying that bringing the matter to the courtroom would “solely play into the fingers of extremists”.
The Islamist group Hamas took over Gaza in 2007 after a short civil struggle with extra reasonable Palestinian rivals. Hamas and Israel have since fought three Gaza wars.
The UN Common Meeting requested the ICJ to offer an advisory opinion on the authorized penalties of Israel’s “occupation, settlement and annexation … together with measures aimed toward altering the demographic composition, character and standing of the Holy Metropolis of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of associated discriminatory laws and measures.”
The UN decision additionally asks the ICJ to advise on how these insurance policies and practices “have an effect on the authorized standing of the occupation” and what authorized penalties come up for all international locations and the United Nations from this standing.
The ICJ final weighed in on the battle between Israel and the Palestinians in 2004, when it dominated that an Israeli separation barrier was unlawful. Israel rejected that ruling, accusing the courtroom of being politically motivated.
