Press release July 17th: The UNGA Request for ICJ Advisory Opinion on the “prolonged Israeli occupation” of “Palestinian territory”

Press release July 17th: The UNGA Request for ICJ Advisory Opinion on the “prolonged Israeli occupation” of “Palestinian territory”

On Friday 19 July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will publish an Advisory Opinion on the consequences of Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.

The advisory opinion was commissioned in December 2022 by the United Nations (UN) in Resolution 77/247. The ICJ was asked to clarify the legality of Israel’s “occupation, settlement, and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.”

At that time, 87 of the 193 UN member states voted in favor of the resolution, less than half of the total membership. The resolution was supported by, among others, the countries of the Arab League, including Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, and Iraq, many African countries, and Palestine, which is not a full member of the UN but has observer status and is represented by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Additionally, a few Western countries, such as Ireland, Spain, Norway, and Switzerland, supported the resolution. The USA, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Israel, and 20 other member states opposed the resolution but were outvoted.

The advisory opinion is not binding; however, it has the potential to further inflame the already tense political atmosphere due to the ongoing Gaza conflict.

“UN Resolution 77/247 is part of a campaign that has aimed to undermine and threaten the existence of the Jewish state since the 1970s. This includes recent proceedings brought to the ICJ under the Genocide Convention, as well as attacks on Israel in the UN Human Rights Council,” noted Andrew Tucker, lawyer and Director-General of The Hague Initiative for International Co-Operation (thinc.). The think tank, based in The Hague, advocates for the fair interpretation and application of international law for peace and security between Israel and its neighbors. It includes renowned jurists and experts from various scientific disciplines worldwide.

Tucker points out that the ICJ has been presented with clearly one-sided narratives in the proceedings concerning Resolution 77/247, which fail to consider the complexity of the conflict and misrepresent the legal, historical, and political context. For example, the historical connection of the Jewish people with the land are totally ignored, as are the strong legal claims that Israel had to sovereignty over the “occupied territories prior to regaining them from Jordan and Egypt in 1967.

According to Tucker, an ICJ advisory opinion could circumvent the existing internationally sanctioned and legally binding framework for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict. “All Security Council resolutions on this topic, as well as the Oslo Accords that are still binding, require a negotiated solution to the conflict. An Advisory Opinion declaring, for example, that the Palestinians have sovereign rights to the ‘occupied territory’, or that Israel must withdraw unconditionally, would totally undermine Israel’s legal and security rights in such negotiations.

“We see that the PLO is deliberately mobilizing anti-Western and particularly anti-Israeli UN member states to undermine Israel’s security and achieve international recognition of an independent Palestinian state on the strategically sensitive territory of the West Bank and the old city of Jerusalem and its environs,” explained Tucker. “As it stands, such a state would aim at nothing less than the eradication of the Jewish state of Israel. That is unacceptable, and UN member states have a duty to ensure this does not happen.”

Further information: download or read the briefing here and watch the video below:

Andrew Tucker explains in below video why the ICJ Advisory Opinion is problematic:

Other relevant information related to the topic:

Two States for Two Peoples? Executive Summary

https://www.thinc-israel.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Executive-Summary-Two-States-for-Two-Peoples-2.pdf

IJL Submission

https://www.9brchambers.co.uk/media/1916/240216_ijl-statement_icj_final.pdf

UKLFI/ELNET Submission

Fiji Written Statement

https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/186/186-20230725-wri-37-00-en.pdf

Fiji Oral Submission

https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/186/186-20240226-ora-02-00-bi.pdf

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