The public hearings are taking place in the Hague from February 19 to 26 after the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution in December 2022.
Israel must end its brutal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the rights group Amnesty International said, as public hearings begin at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to examine the legal consequences of Israel’s prolonged occupation.
The public hearings are taking place in the Hague from February 19 to 26 after the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution in December 2022.
UNGA Resolution 77/247 requested an advisory opinion from the ICJ on the legality of Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territories and the consequences of Israel’s conduct for other states and the UN.
More than 50 states, the African Union, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation are scheduled to participate in the proceedings.
BREAKING| Palestine's legal team at ICJ: The only two countries in the world that defend the legality of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine are the USA and Fiji. Whatever violations of international law Israel commits, the US always seeks to shield it from accountability. pic.twitter.com/aB4bUY3IDS
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) February 19, 2024
‘Most Deadly Occupation’
“The world must recognize that ending Israel’s illegal occupation is a prerequisite to stopping the recurrent human rights violations in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories,” Agnès Callamard, Amnesty’s Secretary General said.
Callamard stressed, “Israel’s occupation of Palestine is the longest and one of the most deadly military occupations in the world,” noting that “for decades it has been characterized by widespread and systematic human rights violations against Palestinians.”
Callamard added that the occupation has also enabled and entrenched Israel’s system of apartheid imposed on Palestinians.
“Over the years, Israel’s military occupation has evolved into a perpetual occupation in flagrant violation of international law.
“The current conflict raging in the occupied Gaza Strip, where the ICJ has ruled there is a real and imminent risk of genocide, has brought into sharp focus the catastrophic consequences of allowing Israel’s international crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories to continue with impunity for so long.”
Callamard also said that the world must recognize that ending Israel’s illegal occupation is a prerequisite to stopping the recurrent human rights violations in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories.
"At the heart of the settler colonial project of Israel is a.. system that provides comprehensive rights.. for the Jewish Israeli settlers in the West Bank, while imposing upon the Palestinians military rule without basic protections"
Namira Negm quotes @FranceskAlbs at the ICJ pic.twitter.com/AJLRxMgQjA
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) February 19, 2024
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 29,092 Palestinians have been killed, and 69,028 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
ICJ Hearings
The ICJ began on Monday to discuss the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.
"Israeli governments have given the Palestinian people only three options: Displacement, subjugation or death… Ethnic cleansing, apartheid or genocide. But our people are here to stay."
ICJ begins historic hearings into Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories since… pic.twitter.com/tqBca9Q1MJ— 5Pillars (@5Pillarsuk) February 19, 2024
Today witnesses the opening of the hearings in The Hague and the statement of the State of Palestine.
The sessions come in the context of the United Nations General Assembly’s request to obtain an advisory opinion from the court on the effects of the Israeli occupation that has continued for more than 57 years, and will continue for six days.
During the sessions, the court is scheduled to hear briefings from 52 countries – an unprecedented number in the history of the court – in addition to the African Union, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the League of Arab States.
(WAFA, PC)
Israil should be held accountable for what they had done since half century to the pleatinians. Now the time has come to punish the guilty.
Israil should be held accountable for what they had done since half century to the palestinians. Now the time has come to punish the guilty.