Palestinian officials made enthusiastic statements on Monday, with one saying that “successive Israeli governments have given the Palestinian people only three options: displacement, oppression, or death.” Israel said that it does not recognize the legitimacy of the sessions and will not attend. The United States presented its arguments on Wednesday.
What are the hearings about?
The hearings come in response to a 2022 UN General Assembly resolution. They will consider the legal consequences of what the document calls Israel's “continuous violation” of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination. its “prolonged occupation, settlement, and annexation” of Palestinian territories; “Israel’s adoption of relevant discriminatory legislation and procedures.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said statement On social media, the hearings violated “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 deadliest military occupation in the world.”
Israel says it does not “occupy” the Gaza Strip after it withdrew and relinquished control in 2005. However, human rights groups say it has maintained control over the Strip in other ways, such as the blockade imposed by the armed group when Hamas took power in 2007.
An estimated 700,000 Israelis live in the West Bank in settlements deemed illegal by the international community and which have been expanded under Netanyahu. This month, the Biden administration imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers accused of launching attacks in the West Bank, where Palestinians have faced record levels of violence since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. Human rights groups say Palestinians living there are subjected to excessive force, arbitrary arrests, land seizures and mass surveillance, among other human rights violations.
On Monday, Palestinian officials called The court may rule that the Israeli occupation is illegal.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, held back tears as he urged 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 able to do so.” “They are treated as children, not as a demographic threat.”
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said his people had “endured colonialism and apartheid” for decades. “There are those who are angry about the use of these words,” he said. “Instead, they should be outraged by the reality we live in.”
Representatives of ten countries spoke on Tuesday, including those of Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Bangladesh and South Africa, which is leading a separate case at the International Court of Justice alleging that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. Israel denied these allegations.
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. During South Africa's presentation before the court, he said that Israel “discriminates and fragments all the Palestinian people to ensure the preservation of Jewish-Israeli hegemony.”
The Saudi Arabia envoy echoed South Africa's concerns: “There can be no serious debate that Israeli policies and practices also amount to racial discrimination and amount to apartheid, in serious violation of the human rights of the Palestinian people.”
The United States on Wednesday defended Israel, making it one of the few countries to do so in International Court of Justice hearings. “Move toward Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip requires consideration of Israel's real security needs,” US State Department official Richard Visek told the court. Hungary said the hearings could further inflame tensions.
France, among the Western countries most supportive of the Palestinians amid the war in Gaza, described Israel's settlement policies as “illegal.” The state representative, Ambassador Diego Colas, testified that Israel is obligated to protect the Palestinians.
Egypt, which borders the Gaza Strip, denounced Israel's “continuous obstruction” of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry legal advisor Yasmine Moussa said: “One only needs to look at Israel’s brutal and comprehensive destruction of Gaza today, after years of imposing medieval siege and siege methods, to realize the extent of Israel’s violation of this principle.”
Which countries are scheduled to speak next?
Ten countries are scheduled to testify on Thursday, including China, Iran, Lebanon and Japan.
Friday's lineup includes Britain, Qatar, Norway and others.
About 50 countries – in addition to the African Union, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation – are expected to participate during the hearings. .
Why is Israel accused of apartheid?
the term “racism” It refers to an institutional system based on the systematic oppression and control of one ethnic group over another to maintain control, according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, according to which apartheid is a crime against humanity.
Apartheid was originally used to refer to the white South African government's racial segregation and political and economic discrimination against the country's majority non-white population. It ended in 1994.
Namira Negm, who was speaking as part of the Palestinian delegation, told the International Court of Justice 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 “land fragmentation, separation and control, confiscation of land and property, and denial of economic and social rights” amounted to “apartheid,” a charge Israel rejects.
Then-Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said before the report was published: “Israel is not perfect, but we are a democratic state committed to international law, vulnerable to criticism, with a free press and a strong, independent judicial system.”
In 2021, a Human Rights Watch report accused the Israeli authorities of “committing crimes against humanity represented by apartheid and persecution,” saying that they had “expelled, imprisoned, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity.”
In response, Israeli officials told The Washington Post that the report was “full of lies.”
What are the implications of the hearings?
The result is expected In an advisory opinion from the Court, according to an International Court of Justice press release. It will then be up to the organization that requested the opinion, in this case the United Nations General Assembly, “to activate [the opinion] Or not, by any means they deem appropriate,” says the International Court of Justice’s website.
The hearings address the broader topic of Israel's presence in the Palestinian territories and represent a broader assessment of Israeli-Palestinian relations, but the resulting opinion may increase international pressure on Israel over its military campaign in Gaza.
Brian Beach, Emily Ruhala and Joe Snell contributed to this report.
