ICJ hearings on Israel’s occupation of Palestine live: Day 3

The ongoing suffering in Gaza and the rise in violence in the West Bank reinforces the US’ resolve to urgently achieve a “final peace”, which requires the “full realisation of Palestinian self-determination”.

This means a Palestinian state living alongside an Israeli state, Visek says.

“The lack of meaningful progress in a negotiated end to the conflict cannot and must not persist,” he added. “This conflict cannot be resolved through violence or unilateral actions. Negotiations are the path to a lasting peace.”

The US representative says that international law has a central and important role to play within the established framework set forth by the Security Council and General Assembly.

The challenge for the court, he says, is how to provide its advice in a way that “promotes the framework” rather than “disrupting its balance, potentially making the possibility of negotiations even more difficult”.

He says that under the established framework, “a movement towards Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza requires consideration of Israel’s very real security needs” he says.

We were all reminded of those security needs on October 7, and they persist,” he says before adding, “Regrettably, those needs have been ignored by many of the participants in asserting how the court should consider the questions before it”.

Visek argued the UN has already established the principle by which the withdrawal of Israeli forces relies on “the termination of belligerence and respect of Israel’s right to live peacefully in the region”.

This principle is recognised as “land for peace” and was also adopted by Israelis and Palestinians in the Oslo Accords, he said. “This remains the only basis to achieve a lasting peace and the framework for ongoing US efforts.”

The World Court can play a role in promoting this framework without “undermining the maintenance of peace and security”.

“The US is by no means suggesting there is no role for the court or that it should not rule on violations of international law, but in exercising its advisory role it must take into consideration the extent to which the UN Security Council has already taken action to address the matter, including in its Resolution 2720 in December that reiterated the need for a two-state solution,” said the State Department official.

Since the UN General Assembly first requested the ICJ’s advisory opinion, the international community has confronted “the horror of the terrorist attacks of October 7” and ensuing war on Gaza that has had “severe widespread and tragic consequences for Palestinian civilians”.

The United States is “engaging intensively with the Palestinians, with Israel and with other states in the region” not only to address the current crisis, but “to advance a political settlement that will lead to a durable peace in the region that includes lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians, and a path to Palestinian statehood”.

“There is broad international support for achieving a negotiated solution to the conflict that will give rise to a Palestinian state,” said Visek.

The UAE’s Nusseibeh requested the following from the ICJ’s advisory:

• Israel must end its siege of Gaza, let aid in and stop the forcible transfer of the Palestinian population. “In practical terms, it must mean a ceasefire,” she said.
• Israel must dismantle settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and prevent acts of violence perpetrated by settlers.
• States must cooperate to bring Israel’s breaches to an end.
• “Israel’s administration of East Jerusalem constitutes annexation of territory on which the Palestinian people have the right to self-determination. International law is unequivocal in this respect. All measures by Israel that affect or aim to alter the status of East Jerusalem are null and void and have no legal effect.”
• “Israelis and Palestinians must thrive side by side in their own independent, prosperous and secure states,” she said.

Lana Nusseibeh is now focusing on Israel’s actions in occupied East Jerusalem.

“Israel has, in agreements with Jordan and with the Holy See, committed to the historic status quo and freedom of access to the holy places in Jerusalem. It is, therefore, gravely disconcerting that Israel has taken, and continues to take, measures which undermine the special character of Jerusalem and erase its cultural heritage.”

Israel is in breach of its obligations by “repeatedly interfering with the holy places and hindering freedom of access to them”.

Since the start of Israel’s occupation in 1967, “Muslims and Christians have been impeded from worshipping at their holiest sites.”

Nusseibeh outlined how the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories rapidly deteriorated over the past year.

“The level of human suffering for people in Gaza is on a level rarely seen in human history. Israel has imposed a policy of collective punishment on the Palestinian people,” she said.

Last year was by far the deadliest year for Palestinian in the occupied West Bank with the highest level of settler violence recorded by the UN.

“I raise these recent developments to underline that the violations at the core of the questions posed by the General Assembly are not static. After decades of violent dehumanisation, dispossession and despair, the breaches resulting from the Israeli occupation are worsening at an alarming pace,” she said.

The UAE’s envoy also underlined the unique character of the city of Jerusalem has “given rise to specific legal obligations including specific guarantees of access”.

Lana Nusseibeh, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United Nations, is now speaking.

“International law cannot be an a la carte menu. It must apply equally to all, and it is all the more essential in the long shadow cast by the Palestinian question and injustice that has persisted for more than seven decades,” she said.

The UAE believes the only path to “just and lasting peace is through the fulfilment of the long-denied right of the Palestinian people to self-determination with an independent and sovereign Palestine based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital”, Nusseibeh added.

The United States delegation will speak after the United Arab Emirates.

While Washington has pressed Israel recently to allow an independent Palestinian state, its past actions raise questions about its sincerity. The US has vetoed at least four UN Security Council resolutions condemning Israel’s settlements on Palestinian land.

East Jerusalem is meant to be the capital of a future Palestinian state, as outlined in international agreements. But former President Donald Trump recognised the entirety of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017.

Critics say Washington’s blanket support of Israel encourages a disproportionate use of force against Palestinians, including Israel’s current bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip.

Egypt’s legal representative concludes her arguments:

“For how much longer do the Palestinian people need to wait before they’re able to exercise their legitimate rights under international law? For how much longer will the United Nations manage the impacts of Israeli violations without addressing their root cause?” Jasmine Moussa asked.

“History will judge us for how we respond today.”

She called on the court to recognise that Israel, as the occupying power, is obliged to make reparations and end immediately its occupation and unlawful practices including settlements.

“There can be no prosperity, no security, no stability, no peace in the Middle East without upholding justice and the rule of law.”

Jasmine Moussa says Egypt “firmly denounces the ongoing obstruction of the Palestinian people’s inalienable, permanent and unqualified 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, a siege and blockade, to realise the extent of Israel’s transgression of this principle,” she said.

“Israel’s prolonged occupation is therefore illegal.”

“Only one state has attempted to justify Israel’s actions by contesting the Palestinians’ title to the occupied territories and justifying Israel’s expansion,” Moussa says, without mentioning that country by name.

International courts recognise that 1967 wasn’t done in self-defence but was an aggressive war.

“The right to self-determination is a cardinal principle in international law and all states have a duty in respecting and protecting this right. The indefinite occupation breaches the Palestinians’ right to determine their political status and to pursue their economic, social and cultural development,” said Moussa.

Egypt’s representative says there is “overwhelming evidence that Israeli support for and maintenance of settlements is intended to permanently alter the demographic composition of the occupied Palestinian territory and extend Israeli sovereignty over it”.

“This is coupled with Israel’s mass forcible transfer and forced displacement of the Palestinians in Gaza through its illegal evacuation orders and indiscriminate use of force,” Moussa says.

Egypt’s Jasmine Moussa says the Middle East “yearns for peace and stability” and a “comprehensive and lasting resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict”.

Cairo wants the “establishment of a viable Palestinian state on the pre-1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital”, she said.

Moussa highlighted the “ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination from its prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967”.

Source:https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/2/21/icj-hearings-on-israels-occupation-of-palestine-live-day-3