Palestinian Diplomat Accuses Israel of Apartheid and Asks UN Court to Declare Its Occupation Illegal

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Mon Feb 19, 2024, 04:07 PM - Edit history (2)

Source: US News and World Report/AP

Feb. 19, 2024, at 2:35 a.m.


THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Palestinian foreign minister on Monday accused Israel of apartheid and urged the United Nations' top court to declare that Israel’s occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state is illegal and must end immediately and unconditionally for any hope for a two-state future to survive.

The remarks came at historic hearings into the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation. The case opened against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which immediately became a focal point of the day — even though the hearings were meant to center on Israel’s open-ended control over the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem.

Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riad Malki told the International Court of Justice that “2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, half of them children, are besieged and bombed, killed and maimed, starved and displaced.” "More than 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, including in Jerusalem, are subjected to colonization of their territory and racist violence that enables it," he added.

International law expert Paul Reichler, representing the Palestinians, told the court that the policies of Israel's government “are aligned to an unprecedented extent with the goals of the Israeli settler movement to expand long term control over the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in practice to further integrate those areas within the territory” of Israel.

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-02-19/top-un-court-to-open-hearings-into-israels-occupation-of-lands-sought-for-a-palestinian-state

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Article updated.

Previous article -

Feb. 19, 2024, at 2:35 a.m.


THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- The Palestinian foreign minister on Monday accused Israel of apartheid and urged the United Nations' top court to declare that Israel's occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state is illegal and must end immediately and unconditionally for any hope for a two-state future to survive.

The remarks came at historic hearings into the legality of Israel's 57-year occupation. The case opened against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which immediately became a focal point of the day -- even though the hearings were meant to center on Israel's open-ended control over the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem.

Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki told the International Court of Justice that "2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, half of them children, are besieged and bombed, killed and maimed, starved and displaced." "More than 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, including in Jerusalem, are subjected to colonization of their territory and racist violence that enables it," he added.

International law expert Paul Reichler, representing the Palestinians, told the court that the policies of Israel's government "are aligned to an unprecedented extent with the goals of the Israeli settler movement to expand long term control over the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in practice to further integrate those areas within the territory" of Israel.

Original article/headline -

Top UN Court Opens Hearings Into Israel's Occupation of Lands Sought for a Palestinian State.

Feb. 19, 2024, at 2:35 a.m.


THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- Historic hearings opened on Monday at the United Nations' top court into the legality of Israel's 57-year occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state.

The hearings are to last six days before the International Court of Justice. Monday's session started with Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki speaking as a representative of the Palestinians. The hearings follow a request submitted by the U.N. General Assembly for a non-binding advisory opinion into Israel's policies in the occupied territories.

Though the case opens at the court's Great Hall of Justice against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, it focuses instead on Israel's open-ended control over the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem.

The Palestinian legal team is expected to tell the panel of international judges that Israel has violated the prohibition on territorial conquest by annexing large swaths of occupied land and the Palestinians' right to self-determination, and has imposed a system of racial discrimination and apartheid. "We want to hear new words from the court," said Omar Awadallah, the head of the U.N. organizations department in the Palestinian Foreign Ministry.

[RAB910]

1. This is long past due

[BuddhaGirl]

3. +1

It IS apartheid. The denial of this is shameful.

[RAB910]

4. The path to peace requires Israel to return the land they have stolen

[LeftInTX]

6. They won the land in a war that Egypt started in 1967.

It wasn't stolen. Egypt started a war, Jordan and Syria joined.
Israel obtained the Sinai, Gaza from Egypt. Israel obtained the West Bank from Jordan, and Golan Heights from Syria.
They gave Sinai back to Egypt in 1978, but Egypt did not want Gaza.
They eventually tried to give the West Bank back to Jordan, but King Hussein did not want it.

It wasn't stolen. It was won in a war. The lands were already occupied by Egypt and Jordan.

[RAB910]

7. You don't "win" land, there wasn't a raffle or lottery, the STOLE the land by military force

[LeftInTX]

8. Then lands were already "stolen" by Egypt and Jordan.

What were they supposed to do? They were attacked by Egypt and Jordan....They didn't steal the lands by force. The war lasted an entire six days.

[ripcord]

10. They took the land from Egypt over legitimate security concerns

Egypt launched several wars on Israel from Gaza so Israel took it to keep that from happening. Maybe if Egypt wasn't an anti-semitic, blood thristy barbarian nation it wouldn't have been necessary. After being attacked and threatened with extinction 5 times Israel took Gaza and the Gohlan to protect themselves, if only the U.N. and the rest of the usual suspects had only screamed as loudly when the Arab nations along with the Palestinians launch multiple wars of genocide against Israel.

[RAB910]

16. Not "legit" not in the eyes of any legal authority

[Happy Hoosier]

13. So.... who did the land "belong" to?

Given the history of this land, your answer ought to be interesting....

[RAB910]

17. The Palestinians

[Happy Hoosier]

19. So, when Egypt and Jordan annexed the land, they were stealing it?

And you realize these borders are largely arbitrary, right? "Palestine" has been a region in one empire or another for a couple thousand years. The people living there were not ethnically or culturally distinct from others in the region.

Are you talking JUST about the occupied territories or all of modern Israel

And don't forget that after the 1947-48 war, many Arab nations expelled Jews who had nothing to do with Israel. Do they get their land back as part of your plan?

This is a farily good summary of the events leading to the modern state of Israel. It's not quite what a lot of people think it is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeland_for_the_Jewish_people

[The Magistrate]

23. Worth Noting, Sir, In Regard To Jewish Expulsions

A staple of the opposition expressed by Arab states to the '47 partition was that should it go forward, violent retribution would be wrought against the million of so Jews then resident in these states. To put it cold: create a Jewish zone, and we'll kill any Jew we can catch in the neighborhood.

It's never been a pretty thing, Arab opposition to Israel. It's no surprise many don't like a square look at it.


"People who see the world in black and white are helpless faced by need to choose between jet and onyx greys."

[cstanleytech]

20. I never liked the term own as it's more like a long term lease with the expiration date being when you die.

[Happy Hoosier]

22. quite so....

.... we are all temporary occupants.

[The Magistrate]

15. Regarding The Jordan Valley, Sir

Israel defeated military forces of a nation in occupation of the area, a nation whose claim to that land, gained by seizure in '48, was widely disputed.

Because the last sovereign title to the place was that of the League of Nation, farmed out to England, and inherited by the League's successor, the United Nations, the situation is a poor fit with international law, which assumes all territory is part of some sovereign state or another. I don't agree with arguments some press that this means the conventions do not apply, since they envision occupation as something exerted over citizens and territories of another sovereign state, but they are not ridiculous, merely exercises in exalting the letter of the law against its spirit.

Things take on a different aspect when attempts at inflaming emotions, and indulgence in hyperbole, are omitted.

[RAB910]

18. The only legal claims are UN Resolution 181

By that, Irsael STOLE land that didn't belong to them

[The Magistrate]

21. Not Quite, Sir

The admission of Israel to the United Nations entailed recognition of its sovereignty over the area west of the Green Line by the party with title, the United Nations.

It had been intended negotiations between the parties under UN auspices, begun as separate negotiations for armistice between Israel and various Arab states were underway, would adjust the lines of the original partition. These collapsed in mutual intransigence. As, for that matter, did the original Partition map.

[LeftInTX]

5. I believe this has already been decided and unlike the genocide court, this decision is non-binding.

Israel is not a member of this particular court.

But I believe this was already decided decades ago.
The UN Security Council resolutions are more binding than the ICJ.

Everyone (except Israel) agrees that settlements are illegal.

The legality of the actual occupation (rule and who owns the West Bank) is hard to figure out. I believe decades ago the UN decided that the acquisition was illegal because the UN had decided that land could no longer be "won in war". (But look what Putin did to Crimea?) However, that decision came shortly after 1967, when countries were still winning "land by war"...So it's murky.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-accused-of-repressing-basic-palestinian-freedoms-in-icj-hearing-on-west-bank-rule/
Either way, the decision will be unbinding.

[The Magistrate]

9. The Settlements Are Illegal, Sir, The Occupation Is Not

There is no legal objection to Israel maintain military control over land over-run in '67, whether it is regarded as sovereign territory (Jordanian) or part of no state but not within Isreal's accepted sovereign bounds.

The settlement program is a violation of the Geneva regulations prescribing rights and duties of an occupying power, as is Israel's refusal to enforce civil order when settler gangs attack Arab residents.

[PufPuf23]

12. The Jewish settlers 'living the American dream' in the West Bank

The Jewish settlers 'living the American dream' in the West Bank

Rebecca Rommen Dec 28, 2023, 4:01 AM PST

Tens of thousands of US Jews live in West Bank settlements.

The October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel have sparked backlash in the West Bank.

Settler violence has been dubbed an "American problem."

"I'm living the American dream in Israel," Judith Segaloff told Business Insider.

Segaloff is a US-born settler living in the West Bank, a territory that Israel occupied after the Six-Day War in 1967. She was born into a Jewish family in New Jersey. She was brought up with Zionist values but did not visit Israel until she was in her 40s.

cut

She said her neighborhood was reminiscent of Westchester, New York, which she once called home.

"Like Westchester, we have a big house— much bigger than we would have anywhere else in the country," she said. "We have a lot of land, a big backyard, and there's people that speak English all over."

cut

Segaloff said she and her husband described their fellow settlers as "plucky," akin to the American settlers who were "pushing out to Oregon and the West when Native Americans were attacking them."

The Jewish settlements are evocative of American expansionism, Hirschhorn said, with "Americanized" characteristics: The West Bank communities have familiar bagel shops, huge supermarkets, and all the amenities you would hope to find in an American suburb.

cut

https://www.businessinsider.com/60000-american-jews-live-in-west-bank-settlements

[Happy Hoosier]

14. I agree with this.

It's very clear that the settlements are illegal.

The occupation itself is not, though Israel has not been faithfully executing its duties as an occupying power.

[Arazi]

11. This entire hearing is a disgusting sham

Of course there’s another special international “hearing” just to lash Jews. What about the multitude of other displaced people - some going on far longer than Israel and Gaza? No “historic” hearings for them.

The Kurds, Armenians, Tibetans etc should be so lucky to get even a fraction of the attention as the Palestinians. How about what India’s been doing during their occupation of Kashmir? Literally millions of people slaughtered around the world, far FAR worse mass atrocities committed by other countries against displaced populations, going on far FAR longer than the I/P conflict. Nope, gotta make an example of the Jews.

It’s sickening.

How anyone can deny the repulsive global antisemitism with these singular “j’accuse” sham “hearings” will never cease to disgust me.