Financial Times: The International Court of Justice decision increases Israeli isolation
The Financial Times commented on the advisory opinion submitted by the International Court of Justice to the United Nations General Assembly, saying that it increases the isolation of the diplomatic Israel.
The court had ruled that Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem and the West Bank had led to a settlement policy that violated international law.
In its announcement on Friday, it stressed, “the Israel occupation of Palestinian territories is a de facto annexation,” noting that the Israel’s settlement policies “violate international law”.
The Financial Times added that the decision wouldn’t have a significant immediate effect, given that it’s not binding, noting that the occupation ignored another ruling issued in 2004, on the apartheid wall in the West Bank, which it considered illegal.
However, the Financial Times commented that the advisory opinion requested by the General Assembly before the start of the war in Gaza on the seventh of October is one of three separate international legal challenges facing the Israel.
Israel has refused to comply with previous hearings.
Its ambassador to Netherlands last year, where hearings were held in The Hague, wrote that the occupation refuses to answer questions that reflect a severe injustice and imbalance.
In its ruling during a hearing announcing the court, the UN’s highest judicial body, the court noted that settlements were established and maintained in violation of international law.
The head of the International Justice Organization, Nawaf Salam, read the advisory opinion, noting that this opinion doesn’t include the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, which began on October 7, 2023.
He stressed that the court wasn’t convinced that the extension of Israeli law in the West Bank and Jerusalem was justified and that it considered Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem to be a violation of international law.
Salam said the court believes that the Israel applied its own law there after 1967, and that the Israel is obliged to end its presence in the occupied Palestinian territories as soon as possible.
