Humanitarian obligations to Palestinians

The UN's highest court, International Court of Justice (ICJ) has begun a week of hearings into Israel's obligation to "ensure and facilitate" humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories and particularly in Gaza, reports Euronews.

The hearings come in response to a resolution passed last year by the UN General Assembly asking the ICJ to weigh in on Israel's legal responsibilities after the country blocked UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, from operating on its territory.

The hearings opened as the humanitarian aid system in Gaza is nearing collapse. The UN legal team was the first to address the court on Monday, followed by Palestinian representatives.

The World Food Program said last week its food stocks in Gaza have run out, ending a main source of sustenance for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Israel, which denies deliberately targeting civilians and aid staff as part of its war with Hamas, has blocked the entry of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies since 02 March, and renewed its military campaign on March 18, saying it aims to push Hamas to release more hostages.

The Palestinian Ambassador to the Netherlands Ammar Hijazi told the ICJ in The Hague, “Israel is starving, killing and displacing Palestinians while also targeting and blocking humanitarian organizations trying to save their lives", accusing it of breaching international law.

No Israeli representatives attended the hearing, which Foreign Minister Gideon Saar decried as part of a “systematic persecution and delegitimization” of his country. "It is abusing the international legal system and politicizing it," he added.

Israel's ban on UNRWA, which came into effect in January, stems from claims that the group has been infiltrated by Hamas. Israel presented its case against UNRWA on Monday, accusing it of failing to act before the war against evidence that Hamas had used its facilities.

Amir Weissbrod, a Foreign Ministry official, said UNRWA employed 1,400 Palestinians with militant ties, adding that some of those employees also took part in Hamas’ 07 October 2023 attacks. UNRWA said it fired nine staffers after an internal UN investigation.

In total, 40 states and four international organizations are scheduled to participate in the ICJ case. The US, which voted against the UN resolution, is scheduled to speak on Wednesday.

The court will likely take months to rule. But experts say that while any decision will not be legally binding, the outcome could profoundly impact international jurisprudence, international aid to Israel and public opinion.

Whether any ruling will have an effect on Israel is another matter. The Israeli government has long accused the UN of being unfairly biased against it and has ignored a 2004 advisory ruling by the ICJ that found its West Bank separation barrier illegal.

It also ignored last year's advisory ruling calling Israel to stop settlement activity in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it a "decision of lies".

 

ICJ terms Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territory illegal

The International Court of Justice said Friday that Israel's decade’s long occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful and must end as rapidly as possible.

We can take pride in publishing a blog titled “Israel must be brought back to its original size” as back as on Saturday 01 December 2012. The opening paragraph read “The latest announcement of Israel to build 3000 new settlement homes on occupied land is a slap on the face of international community that has just recognized Palestine State, accepting the philosophy of two sovereign states, Israel and Palestine.”

The court's nonbinding advisory opinion was read aloud by ICJ President Nawaf Salam, a Lebanese judge and academic. Salam said the court determined based on "extensive evidence" that Israel is guilty of confiscating "large areas" of Palestinian land for use by Israeli settlers, exploiting natural resources, and undermining the local population's right to self-determination under international law.

The court pointed to "Israel's systematic failure to prevent or punish" settler violence and "demolition of Palestinian property" in the West Bank as part of its case that the Israeli government's actions in the occupied territories are indicative of an attempt to permanently annex land and forcibly transfer Palestinians from their homes.

"Israel is not entitled to sovereignty in any part of the occupied Palestinian territory on account of its occupation, nor can security concerns override the prohibition on acquisition of territory by force," said Salam.

The ICJ vote against Israel's occupation was 11-4. The court also voted to call on Israel to evacuate all settlers from the West Bank.

In a 12-3 vote, the ICJ said that all nations "are under an obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of the state of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence of the state of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory."

The United States was among the countries that warned the ICJ against advising that Israel must swiftly end its occupation.

The ICJ handed down its opinion as the court is also considering a genocide case brought against Israel over its ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip—a devastating war that the court did not weigh as part of its new advisory opinion.

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, applauded the ICJ's call for the dismantling of Israeli settlements and reparations for Palestinians harmed by Israel's occupation.

"The ICJ ruling in essence confirmed what the majority of people (except the West) already knew and have recognized that Israel's occupation is illegal, that it is still occupying Gaza, it is annexing the West Bank, and Israel is an apartheid state," Parsi wrote on social media.

"If there is any respect for international law, Western media must now include this in all its Israel coverage. Most don't even describe settlements as illegal!"

Nancy Okail, president and CEO of the Center for International Policy, said in a statement that "while the ICJ's action is nonbinding, countries that seek to uphold international law should respect the court's determination and take all appropriate steps to counter the injustices of the occupation and bring it to a peaceful end."

"At a minimum, countries should not engage in actions which help to perpetuate the occupation and its discriminatory, annexationist goals," said Okail.

"In particular, the United States must end the unconditional supply of arms that Israel uses in connection with the dispossession and settlement of Palestinian land and other violations of Palestinian rights," added Okail.

 

 

Global calls for sanctions on Israel

Imposing sanctions on the Israeli regime has been a long-held demand by many in the international community over the past decades despite persistent shielding of the regime by the United States. The issue of punitive measures is being raised once more amid the devastating and indiscriminate Israeli war on Gaza.

The international rights organization, Human Rights Watch, has joined other advocacy groups, politicians and countries in calling for “sanctions on Israel”, especially to put pressure on Tel Aviv to comply with the ICJ ruling on genocide.

A month has passed since a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found there was a plausible case to investigate the act of genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza amid the Israeli war on the tiny coastal territory. 

Despite the ICJ’s demands that called on Tel Aviv to do everything within its power to prevent the act of genocide from taking place against the Palestinians in Gaza until the highest UN court concludes its investigation the regime has failed to do so, infuriating international rights groups. 

The United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said that fewer aid trucks have entered Gaza and fewer aid missions have been allowed to reach northern Gaza in the several weeks since the ruling than in the weeks preceding it. 

Rights groups have accused the Israeli regime of continuing to obstruct the delivery of basic services in the Gaza Strip and entry and distribution of lifesaving aid and fuel within the enclave. 

They also warned that the Israeli military is practicing other acts of collective punishment that amount to war crimes. These include the starvation of civilians as a weapon of war. 

In its latest report, Human Rights Watch has warned that “the Israeli government is starving Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, putting them in even more peril than before the World Court’s (ICJ) binding order.”

“According to data published by OCHA and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the daily average number of trucks entering Gaza with food, aid, and medicine dropped by more than a third in the weeks following the ICJ ruling.”

This is in clear violation of the ICJ ruling, triggering calls by rights groups and politicians to impose sanctions and other punitive measures against the Israeli government and military officials. 

“Israel’s ground forces are able to reach all parts of Gaza, so Israeli authorities clearly have the capacity to ensure that aid reaches all of Gaza,” Human Rights Watch highlighted. 

The Israeli regime is “starving Gaza’s 2.3 million population more harshly than before,” the group added.  

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), a global human rights NGO that combines 188 organizations from 116 countries has issued a press release entitled “The European Union must sanction Israel for its crimes in Gaza”.

The FIDH called on the 27-nation bloc to prosecute Israeli officials arguing that the EU has a duty to intervene to the fullest extent against the Israeli regime. 

“The plausible risk of genocide recognized by the ICJ is a point of no return, which makes the absence of concerted sanctions and condemnations unsustainable.”

Earlier this month, Ireland and Spain jointly called for an “urgent review” of the EU’s trade agreement with Tel Aviv.

In Ireland, the upper house of the legislature unanimously passed a motion on Saturday calling on the Irish government to “impose sanctions on Israel” and to prevent “US weapons being sent to Israel passing through Irish airspace”. The motion also calls on the government to advocate for an “international arms embargo on Israel”.

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) has welcomed the move, saying it will now increase “pressure on the government to act”.

IPSC added “polls show that 80% of people in Ireland understand that what’s happening in Gaza is a genocide, that 70% recognize that Israel is committing the Crime of Apartheid, and that huge majorities are demanding sanctions.”

This comes as the UN Human Rights Office has called on all countries to immediately cease any arms transfers to the Israeli regime. 

Sending weapons would violate international humanitarian law, it added. 

Furthermore, UN experts have welcomed the decision of an appeals court in the Netherlands on 12 February 2024 that ordered the government to halt the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has once again decried the ongoing Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip despite the diplomatic spat between Brazil and the Israeli regime over his genocidal comments on Gaza. 

On Saturday, President Lula reiterated that what the Israeli government is doing is not war. It is genocide. Children and women are being murdered.

On Tuesday, the Brazilian leader maintained his position in a TV interview. 

Courtesy: Tehran Times

 

Israel is committing genocide

Al Jazeera  has released a list of countries which have welcomed the ICJ case that says Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

It is worth noting that both South Africa and Israel are signatories to the 1948 Genocide Convention which gives the ICJ the jurisdiction to rule on disputes over the treaty.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) based in The Hague will hold its first hearing in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel on Thursday, with several countries welcoming the move amid a global chorus for a ceasefire in Gaza.

South Africa filed the lawsuit end of December 2023, accusing Israel of genocide in its war on Gaza and seeking a halt to the brutal military assault that has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, nearly 10,000 of them children.

The 84-page filing by South Africa says Israel violated the 1948 Genocide Convention, drawn up in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust.

All states that signed the convention are obliged to not commit genocide and also to prevent and punish it. The treaty defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

Here’s what we know about the countries backing South Africa in its case against Israel, and the countries that oppose the case at the world court.

Which countries have welcomed South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel?

The Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC), the 57-member bloc, which includes Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and Morocco, voiced their support for the case on December 30.

Malaysia in a statement released on January 02, 2024 by the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the South African application. It reiterated a call for an independent Palestinian state “based on the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital”.

Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Oncu Keceli posted on X on January 03, 2024 welcoming South Africa’s move.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on January 04, 2023 that Amman would back South Africa.

On Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bolivia dubbed South Africa’s move as historic, becoming the first Latin American country to back the ICJ case against Israel.

Besides countries, many advocacy groups and civil society groups worldwide have also joined South Africa’s call. These include Terreiro Pindorama in Brazil, Asociacion Nacional de Amistad Italia-Cuba in Italy, and Collectif Judeo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Palestine in France, reported independent outlet Common Dreams.

Bolivia also pointed out it had earlier filed a request to International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan alongside South Africa, Bangladesh, Comoros, and Djibouti to investigate the situation in Palestine. Khan said he received the request on November 30, 2023.

The ICC and the ICJ are sometimes conflated with one another. Both the courts are located in The Hague, Netherlands. While the purpose of the ICJ is to resolve conflicts between states, the ICC prosecutes individuals for committing crimes, according to the University of Melbourne’s Pursuit platform. While states cannot be sued at the ICC, the prosecutor can open an investigation where crimes, including genocide, were likely committed.

The United States has voiced its opposition to the genocide case. National security spokesperson John Kirby called South Africa’s submission “meritless, counterproductive, and completely without any basis” during a White House press briefing on January 03, 2024.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, “There is nothing more atrocious and preposterous” than the lawsuit. Herzog also thanked Blinken for Washington’s support of Israel.