ICJ Delivers Biased Ruling Against Israel on West Bank and Jerusalem

Latest Developments

The United Nations’ (UN’s) top court issued a nonbinding advisory opinion on July 19, declaring that “the State of Israel’s continued presence” in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem is “unlawful.” The opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague also asserted that Israel is engaged in “systemic discrimination” against “Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” The ICJ added that Israel “is under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible.” The court, led by Lebanese jurist and politician Nawaf Salam, further opined that Israel’s “policies and practices” in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, including “the maintenance and expansion of settlements,” amount to “annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

The ICJ’s advisory opinion was requested by a UN General Assembly resolution passed in 2022. The ruling marked the first time an international court has ruled on the legality of the Israeli presence in areas that Israel gained control of after its victory in the Six Day War, its defensive war against an alliance of Arab nations in 1967. Israel did not participate in the ICJ’s proceedings, calling the case biased and an “abuse of international law and the judicial process.”

In a dissenting opinion written by the ICJ’s Vice President Julia Sebutinde, the Ugandan judge said, “The Court has misapplied the law of belligerent occupation and has adopted presumptions implicit in the question of the General Assembly without a prior critical analysis of relevant issues, including the application of the principle of uti possidetis juris to the territory of the former British Mandate, the question of Israel’s borders and its competing sovereignty claims, the nature of the Palestinian right of self-determination and its relationship to Israel’s own rights and security concerns.”

Expert Analysis

“ICJ Chief Judge Nawaf Salam, who presided over today’s opinion, has twice been a candidate for prime minister of Lebanon, once with Hezbollah’s support, since joining the court in 2018. The ICJ opinion reads like a campaign speech for a third run. It ignores Israel’s right of self-defense and deeply undermines the principle, established by the Security Council and Oslo Accords, that Israel need withdraw from territories occupied in its 1967 war of self-defense only in exchange for peace. The opinion’s rationale gravely undercuts the ability to defend themselves again terrorism of not only Israel but also the United States and its NATO allies.” — Orde Kittrie, FDD Senior Fellow

“Ignoring the history that led to Israeli control of the West Bank and Israeli attempts to achieve peace with the Palestinians, the ICJ assigned all the blame and responsibilities to Israel and all the rights to the Palestinians. This would be like criticizing Israel for recent Palestinian deaths while ignoring Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which is the premise of a separate ICJ case.” — David May, FDD Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst

Israeli Officials United in Opposition to Ruling

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the ICJ’s ruling. “The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land — not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, not in the land of our ancestors in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said. “No false decision in The Hague will distort this historical truth, just as the legality of Israeli settlement in all the territories of our homeland cannot be contested.”

Israeli opposition minister Benny Gantz, chairman of the opposition National Unity party, said that the court’s ruling was “counterproductive to the regional security and stability and overlooks the massacre of October 7 and terror from Judea and Samaria.” Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman called the ruling “another antisemitic show,” adding, “While a war was launched against the State of Israel on six different fronts, the International Court of Justice in The Hague chose to launch its own campaign, the whole purpose of which is to harm Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism.”

Related Analysis

“The Pending Israel-Palestine ICJ Advisory Opinion: Threats to Legal Principles and Security,” by Orde Kittrie and Bruce Rashkow

“The ICJ’s New Chief Judge Has a History of Bias Against Israel,” by Orde Kittrie

“Pending ICJ Case Threatens to Demand Unconditional Israeli Withdrawal from West Bank,” by Orde Kittrie