World Court Rules Israeli Occupation Violates International Law

By 11 to 4, the court ruled that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied territories is unlawful. By 14 to 1, it ruled that Israel is obligated to immediately cease all new settlement activities and evacuate all settlers from the occupied Palestinian territory. The court concluded that Israel’s policies and practices, including the maintenance and expansion of settlements, the construction of related infrastructure and walls, the exploitation of natural resources, the declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and the comprehensive application of Israeli domestic law in East Jerusalem and extensively in the West Bank, strengthen Israel’s control over the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly East Jerusalem and Area C in the West Bank. These policies and practices are designed to continue indefinitely and are designed to have irreversible effects on the ground. Therefore, the court found that these policies and practices amounted to the annexation of most of the occupied Palestinian territory.