ICJ begins hearing on Israel’s humanitarian obligations in Palestinian territory
The UN representatives will kick off the proceedings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, followed by a Palestinian submission.
Over the next five days, 38 countries will then address the 15-judge panel, including the US, China, France, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The League of Arab States, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the African Union will also make submissions.
The hearings are being held at the request of the UN General Assembly, which voted in favour of asking the World Court to weigh in on Israel’s legal obligations last December. That resolution was put forward by Norway after Israel banned the UN agency for Palestinian refugees from operating in Israeli-controlled territory.
What other court cases Israel is facing?
The case is one of several cases against Israel. The others are:
- South Africa’s case at the ICJ, accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. The proceedings are likely to take years to conclude.
- The International Criminal Court’s case against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on war crime allegations. The ICC has also issued warrants for three Hamas leaders who have since been killed.
It’s important to note that the ICJ ruled last year that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and should come to an end “as rapidly as possible”.
ICJ hearings will continue for the whole week
The background to this hearing is a UN General Assembly resolution introduced last year by Norway and a group of other countries, which asked the ICJ to give an opinion on whether Israel, as a signatory to the UN Charter, acted unlawfully in overriding the immunities afforded to the UN body.
What it comes down to is, does Israel’s treatment of UNRWA – the UN agency that looks after Palestinian refugees – adhere to its obligations, its humanitarian obligations?
At issue are two bills that passed in the Israeli Knesset last year, in October, that declared that UNRWA harboured “Hamas terrorists”, as they put it, and instructed the Israeli government to end all cooperation and contact with the organisation, including supplying visas to UNRWA international staff, which has had a huge impact on the flow of food and aid into the besieged Gaza Strip.
Now, five days of hearings will take place over the whole week, and at the end of that, we will have to wait, perhaps several more weeks, before we find out what the judges conclude from all this.
Over the five days, we will hear from representatives from numerous different countries. Now it is likely that it’s not going to be until Wednesday that we actually hear from any country that is going to be supportive of Israel. That’s when the US and that’s when Hungary are speaking.
