Over six days, a clear picture emerged from public hearings held by the United Nations’ highest court before offering its non-binding legal opinion toward Israeli-occupied lands: the majority of nations side with Palestine.
The Hague-based International Court of Justice ended its historic proceedings on Monday after listening to statements from Palestine, 49 U.N. member nations and three international organizations: the Arab League, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and African Union.
It was the first time the ICJ examined what it called the "legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem." In Dec. 2022, the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly asked ICJ for an advisory opinion.
The outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war 10 months later increased the international pressure for a thorough re-examination of Israel's 57-year occupation of the Palestinians' territories sought for a future homeland.
ICJ's president, Judge Nawaf Salam, said the advisory opinion would be announced at a public hearing. It is expected to take a half-year to prepare.
Israel, which did not attend the hearings, wrote to the court that the proceedings raised biased questions and “fail to recognize Israel’s right and duty to protect its citizens.” Britain, Hungary, and the United States notably sided with Israel as having legitimate security concerns.
Philippe Sands, an international lawyer for the Palestinians, argued Israel has "arrogated to itself the right to decide who owns land, who may live on it, how it is used." Most nations also expressed support for Palestinians in their longstanding struggle for control of a region stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the west to the Jordan River to the east.
South Africa's ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusimuzi Madonsela, compared the Palestinians' struggles with South Africans' fight against apartheid. After “decades of apartheid settler colonialism," he said, "a just solution for all who legally qualify to live in historical Palestine would need to be negotiated with the assistance of the international community."
The Palestinians' 'right of return'
In 1947, just two years after the United Nations was created, its General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the partition of the Palestinian territories into two countries, one Jewish and one Arab, plus a U.N.-run international administration to oversee Jerusalem.
A year later, however, Israel declared independence and the first Arab-Israeli war began. The General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for repatriation of Palestinian refugees – later cited as establishing a "right of return" to homes they fled then and later during the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians want all three of those areas to form an independent homeland, but Israel considers the West Bank to be a disputed territory that should be part of negotations that have often broken down due to more settlements and attacks.
Nineteen countries, including Indonesia, Ireland and Spain, suggested that Israel should have to pay reparations to Palestinians through restitution or compensation. Britain, Canada, Fiji, Hungary, the U.S. and Zambia said the U.N. Security Council – which is frequently deadlocked by the veto powers of Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. – should be allowed to negotiate a solution.
In a ruling last month in a separate case, ICJ granted South Africa's request for provisional measures calling on Israel to do all it can to protect civilians and prevent genocide in Gaza.
South Africa accused the Israeli military of genocide in Gaza, which Israel strongly denies, but the court's order – an interim victory for South Africa – still disappointed Palestinians who hoped the court would declare the need for an immediate cease-fire.
The court ruled in 2004 that Israel should immediately halt construction in Palestinian territories and the barrier Israel set up in east Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank was “contrary to international law.”
