The United Nations’ highest court has ruled that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories are illegal and must be removed immediately.
“The State of Israel has an obligation to put an end to its illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as soon as possible,” International Court of Justice President Nawaf Salam said as he delivered the court’s ruling on Friday, stressing that “its continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is illegal.”
The opinion is merely advisory and not legally binding. The BBC reports that the court was specifically seeking to offer its opinion on Israeli policies and practices, and the legal status of settlements.
In May, the court called on Israel to “immediately cease military attacks” against Hamas in Rafah, the Palestinian terrorist group’s last stronghold in the Gaza Strip.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly rejected the court’s findings, saying in a statement on Israel’s website that “the Jewish people are not occupiers of our eternal capital, Jerusalem, or of our historical homeland, Judea and Samaria.”
“No unreasonable opinion in The Hague can deny this historical truth or the legal right of Israelis to live in their own community in their ancestral homeland.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry released a longer, more detailed statement through spokesman Oren Marmorstein, who posted on social media platform X: “Israel rejects the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued today on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
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“Unfortunately, the Court’s opinion is fundamentally flawed,” Marmorstein wrote. “It confuses politics and law, and brings the politics of the United Nations in New York into the courtroom of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.”
Judge and President of the International Court of Justice Nawaf Salam (second from right) delivers a non-binding ruling on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem at the International Court of Justice in The Hague on July 19, 2024. (Nick Gammon/AFP via Getty Images)
“This view is completely divorced from the reality of the Middle East, as Hamas, Iran and other terrorist organisations attack Israel on seven fronts and seek to destroy it, while the aftermath of the largest genocide of Jews since the Holocaust continues. It ignores the atrocities that took place on October 7th and Israel’s security imperative to defend its territory and people,” Marmostein continued.
“It should be emphasized that this opinion is clearly one-sided,” Marmostein added, “and ignores the past, namely the historical rights of the Jewish people in the State of Israel and the Land of Israel.”
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Two Israeli cabinet ministers have hit back at US criticism of settlement construction in the West Bank, also known in Israel as Judea and Samaria. (AP Photo/Ariel Shalit)
“This is a departure from the status quo, from the reality on the ground and from the agreement between the parties,” he stressed, “and is dangerous for the future, as it pushes the parties away from the only solution: direct negotiations.”
Members of the diplomatic corps react after attending a non-binding ruling on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem at the International Court of Justice in The Hague on July 19, 2024. (Nick Gammon/AFP via Getty Images)
Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and executive director of Human Rights Voice, told Fox News Digital that the court’s decision “literally reverses the Oslo Accords and UN Security Council resolutions.”
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This photo taken from the Mount of Olives on July 30, 2020, shows the Israeli flag flying in Jerusalem with the Temple Mount and Dome of the Rock visible in the background. (Ahmad Gharabri/AFP via Getty Images)
“It is difficult to overstate the abuse of law by this UN tribunal,” said Bayevsky. “The verdict was read out by its president, a Lebanese politician who does not even recognize Israel’s right to exist (he was a candidate for prime minister in Lebanon in the last two elections). Incredibly, the tribunal openly stated that it did not need to find concrete facts that violated international law before reaching its conclusion, even before making the slanderous allegation that Israel is committing the crime against humanity known as apartheid. It took the tribunal just four short paragraphs to reach that conclusion.”
“The United Nations and its camouflage courts say they know best. Today controlled by a virulent anti-Semitic majority, which selects its judges and chooses its poison, in this case legal farce, the UN has one unmistakable purpose: to devastate and destroy the Jewish state.”
Israel has already received a legal blow from another Dutch legal governing body, the International Criminal Court, where prosecutor Karim Khan has applied for arrest warrants against Hamas leaders, as well as Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital at the time of publication.
