ICJ opinion confirms Israel is committing ‘crime of apartheid’: Oxfam
Reacting to the ICJ advisory opinion on the policies and practices of Israel’s occupation, Oxfam said the ruling confirmed that Israel “is committing the crime of apartheid in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which is one of the most serious international crimes”.
“There must now be an end to the occupation, the dismantling of settlements, and complete self-determination for Palestinians,” Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Regional Director for the Middle East, said in a statement.
“The international community cannot continue to ignore legal rulings regarding Israel’s illegal policies and inhumane practices. The UN Security Council must act now and finally put an end to the impunity that Israel has enjoyed for decades.”
US rights group calls on Biden to change course following ICJ ruling
Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), says the ICJ ruling “should be a turning point in Washington, where too many of our leaders still refuse to acknowledge that there is an occupation at all”.
Meanwhile, Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, the group’s director of research for Israel-Palestine, said the ruling makes it “impossible to deny the undemocratic one-state, apartheid reality in Israel-Palestine, where half the population lives under a quasi-democracy and the other under a military dictatorship”.
B’Tselem says international community can no longer evade duty to protect Palestinians
Jerusalem-based nonprofit organisation B’Tselem has said the ICJ’s advisory opinion means the international community has “no more excuses” and “must force Israel to end the occupation”.
“The international community has evaded its duty to protect the Palestinians using various excuses, including the supposed temporary nature of the occupation and the claim that a diplomatic solution designed to resolve the conflict is being negotiated,” the organisation said in a statement.
“The release of the ICJ’s advisory opinion puts an end to these justifications, and now the international community must use every tool – criminal, diplomatic and economic – to force Israeli decision-makers to end the occupation.”
