Top UN court says Israeli occupation of West Bank and East Jerusalem is illegal

The United Nations’ top court said Friday that Israel’s presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is illegal, in an unprecedented opinion that called on Israel to end its decades-long occupation of territories that Palestinians want as part of a future state.

The United Nations’ top court said Friday that Israel’s presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is illegal, in an unprecedented opinion that called on Israel to end its decades-long occupation of territories claimed by Palestinians for a future state. The advisory opinion, while non-binding, was the first time the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has expressed its view on the legality of Israel’s presence in territories it captured in the 1967 war. An advisory opinion is not legally binding but carries moral authority and can shape international law, according to the ICJ. Friday’s opinion prompted condemnation from Israeli leaders and praise from Palestinian officials. In its sweeping judgment, the ICJ ran through a list of Israeli practices that it said violated international law, including confiscating land, building Israeli settlements in the territories, and depriving Palestinians of natural resources and the right to self-determination. The court called on Israel to cease new settlement activity, evacuate settlers and make reparations for the damage caused. “The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying Power, through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, violates fundamental principles of international law and renders Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful,” the opinion read. Judge Nawaf Salam, the president of the ICJ, which is based in The Hague in the Netherlands, said the court observed that “large-scale confiscation of land and the degradation of access to natural resources divests the local population of their basic means of subsistence thus inducing their departure.”