West Jerusalem is carrying out a “de-facto annexation” of the West Bank, the International Court of Justice has ruled
Israel’s construction of settlements on Palestinian land violates the Geneva Convention and amounts to a policy of “de-facto annexation,” the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has declared. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the “false ruling,” insisting that the West Bank is Jewish land.
The court’s 15 justices agreed on Friday that “the transfer by Israel of settlers to the West Bank and Jerusalem as well as Israel’s maintenance of their presence, is contrary to article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention”.
Reading out the non-binding advisory opinion, ICJ President Nawaf Salam described Israel’s building of settlements in the West Bank as a “de-facto annexation” of the territory, and stated that the Jewish state should end its “unlawful” presence in occupied Palestinian territory as “rapidly as possible.”
The ICJ has been investigating Israel’s “policies and practices” toward the occupied Palestinian territories since early 2023, at the request of the UN General Assembly. At a series of hearings in February, the Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister, Riad Malki, accused Israel of apartheid and called on the court to declare the occupation of Palestinian land illegal. Israel did not send legal representatives to the hearings.
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