Iran Press/ West Asia: The advisory opinion delivered by the World Court said that Israel must make reparations to Palestinians for damages caused by its occupation and that the UN Security Council, the General Assembly, and all countries must not recognize Israel’s occupation as legal.
According to the World Court's advisory opinion, all nations, the UN Security Council, and the General Assembly have a duty to denounce Israel's occupation as lawful and Israel must compensate the Palestinian people for the harm that its occupation has caused them.
Additionally, it claimed that Israel had essentially annexed a sizable chunk of the occupied land through its occupation and that Israel routinely discriminates against Palestinians there.
International law experts who provided commentary to Middle East Eye pointed out that this is merely a recommendation and not legally enforceable. The court's ruling on the issue, however, might have a big effect on Israel's reputation—which has already been damaged by its war on Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians.
It might also have a big effect on the bigger legal debate about how Israel treats Palestinians. A professor at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco named George Bisharat told Middle East Eye, "I think we are getting very close to a legal conclusion that Israel engages in apartheid."
“In my opinion, this indicates the need for taking necessary steps to arrange the return of displaced Palestinians and those who have fled,” Saeed Bagheri, a professor of international law at Reading School of Law in the UK, said.
While the opinion does not discuss the broader Palestinian right to return that has been outlined by United Nations resolutions, the opinion’s discussion of return and restitution could hold a bearing on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
The release of the opinion comes more than a year and a half after the United Nations passed a resolution calling on the ICJ to weigh in on Israel’s occupation.
That request came after Human Rights Watch released a landmark report saying that Israel is guilty of the “crimes of apartheid” in the occupied Palestinian territories. Amnesty International came to a similar conclusion in February 2022.
The opinion also comes after 10 months of Israel’s war on Gaza, which started in October after Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people and took around 240 others captive.
Israel responded with a full-fledged war and indiscriminate bombing campaign that has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza.
During the span of this war, the ICJ was also forced to respond to a complaint filed by South Africa, where the country accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
In January, the court issued an interim ruling saying that it was plausible Israel was committing genocide, and since then several countries have joined South Africa by filing submissions in support of the complaint.
For the legal specialists, Friday’s advisory opinion and its place in the current conversation around Israel’s occupation will have a major influence on the global community. While any resolution at the UN Security Council can be vetoed by Israel’s ally, the United States, this opinion will continue to bring more attention to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian land it occupies.
“This is a very historic initiative that has significant implications as the Court required both the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council to take further actions to ensure peace in the occupied territories,” Bagheri said.
