The International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, held the third day of hearings Wednesday on the legal consequences of Israel’s policies and practices “in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Dozens of countries are expected to present oral arguments during the hearings, which span six days and deal with questions of Israeli control over the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. While the proceedings are not directly about the war in Gaza, they could intensify pressure on Israel over its military campaign there.
Palestinian officials offered impassioned remarks on Monday, with one arguing that “successive Israeli governments have given the Palestinian people only three options: displacement, subjugation or death.” Israel said it does not recognize the legitimacy of the hearings and will not attend. The United States presented arguments on Wednesday.
State Department official Richard Visek on Feb. 21 argued that calls for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territory ignored “very real security needs.” (Video: International Court of Justice)
What are the hearings about?
The hearings come in response to a 2022 resolution from the U.N. General Assembly. They will look at the legal consequences of what the document calls Israel’s “ongoing violation” of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination; its “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation” of Palestinian territories; and Israel’s “adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on social media that the hearings infringe on “Israel’s right to defend itself against existential threats.”
Human rights groups maintain that the Palestinian territories — the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza — have been occupied by Israel since 1967, in what Amnesty International calls “the longest and one of the most deadly military occupations in the world.”
Israel has argued that it does not “occupy” the Gaza Strip after it withdrew and ceded control there in 2005. However, human rights groups say it has maintained control over the territory in other ways, such as through a blockade imposed when the militant group Hamas took power in 2007.
An estimated 700,000 Israelis are living in the West Bank in settlements that are considered illegal by the international community and that have been expanded under Netanyahu. This month, the Biden administration sanctioned Israeli settlers accused of attacks in the West Bank, where Palestinians have faced record levels of violence since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Human rights groups say Palestinians living there are subject to excessive force, arbitrary detentions, land grabs and mass surveillance, among other rights violations.
The world confronts Israel over its occupation of Palestinian lands
On Monday, Palestinian officials called on the court to rule that Israeli occupation is illegal.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, choked back tears while urging the court “to guide the international community in upholding international law, ending injustice and achieving a just and lasting peace” and moving toward “a future in which Palestinian children are treated as children, not as a demographic threat.”
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, was moved to tears Feb. 19 during the ICJ’s hearing on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. (Video: Reuters)
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyadh al-Maliki said his people “have endured both colonialism and apartheid” for decades. “There are those who are outraged by the use of these words,” he said. “They should instead be outraged by the reality we are living.”
Ten countries’ representatives spoke Tuesday, including those from Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Bangladesh and South Africa, which is leading a separate case in the ICJ alleging that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Israel has denied those claims.
South Africa’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusimuzi Madonsela, accused Israel of perpetuating a “more extreme form” of apartheid than the one that once existed in his country. He said during South Africa’s presentation to the court that Israel “discriminates against and fragments all Palestinian people to ensure the maintenance of Israeli Jewish domination.”
Saudi Arabia’s envoy echoed South Africa’s concerns: “There can be no serious debate that Israeli policies and practices also amount to racial discrimination and are tantamount to apartheid, in grave violation of the Palestinian people’s human rights.”
The United States on Wednesday defended Israel, making it one of the few countries to do so in the ICJ hearings. “A movement toward Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza requires consideration of Israel’s very real security needs,” State Department official Richard Visek told the court. Hungary said the hearings had the potential to further inflame tensions.
France, among the West’s most outspoken supporters of the Palestinians amid the war in Gaza, called Israel’s settlement policies “illegal.” The country’s representative, Ambassador Diégo Colas, testified that Israel was obligated to protect the Palestinians.
Egypt, which borders the Gaza Strip, denounced Israel’s “ongoing obstruction” of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.
“One only needs to look at Israel’s vicious wholesale destruction of Gaza today, after years of imposing the medieval methods of siege and blockade, to realize the extent of Israel’s transgression of this principle,” said Egyptian Foreign Ministry Legal Counselor Jasmine Moussa.
Which countries are scheduled to speak next?
On Thursday, a dozen countries are slated to testify, including China, Iran, Lebanon and Japan.
Friday’s lineup includes Britain, Qatar and Norway, among others.
About 50 states — as well as the African Union, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation — are expected to participate over the course of the hearings. .
South African ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela on Feb. 20 urged the International Court of Justice to find Israel’s occupation illegal. (Video: Reuters)
Why is Israel being accused of apartheid?
The term “apartheid” refers to an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination of one racial group over another for maintaining control, according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, under which apartheid is considered a crime against humanity.
Apartheid was originally used to refer to the White South African government’s racial segregation and political and economic discrimination of the country’s majority non-White population. It ended in 1994.
Namira Negm, speaking as part of the Palestinian delegation, told the ICJ that Israel’s policies and practices meet the evidentiary standard for the existence of apartheid.
In 2022, Amnesty International said in a report that Israel’s policies of “territorial fragmentation, segregation and control, dispossession of land and property, and denial of economic and social rights” amount to “apartheid,” a charge rejected by Israel.
“Israel isn’t perfect, but we are a democracy committed to international law, open to criticism, with a free press and a strong and independent judicial system,” then-Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said before the report’s release.
In 2021, a Human Rights Watch report accused Israeli authorities of “committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution,” saying they have “dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity.”
In response, Israeli officials told The Washington Post that the report is “filled with lies.”
What are the implications of the hearings?
They are expected to result in an advisory opinion from the court, according to an ICJ news release. It will then be up to the organization that requested the opinion, in this case the U.N. General Assembly, to “give effect to [the opinion] or not, by whichever means they see fit,” the ICJ’s website says.
The hearings deal with the broader topic of the Israeli presence in the Palestinian territories and represent a wider assessment of Israeli and Palestinian relations, but the resulting opinion could increase international pressure on Israel over its military campaign in Gaza.
Bryan Pietsch, Emily Rauhala and Joe Snell contributed to this report.