JERUSALEM – The controversial International Court of Justice (ICJ) is facing harsh criticism not only for its Friday order declaring that Israel should halt its military offensive in Rafah to eradicate Hamas, but also for the well-documented anti-Israel bias of the UN court’s presiding judge.
“Simply put, the highest legal body of the United Nations is a political tool of global anti-Semitism. The presiding judge in this case was the International Court of Justice. [International Court of Justice] President Nawaf Salam. He is from Lebanon, which does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. In his spare time, I tweeted this: “Happy Birthday! 48 years of occupation,” as the meme read. He’s a politician, a radical anti-Israel politician, and he’s been disguised as a judge by the United Nations,” Anne Bayevsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, told Fox News Digital.
Bayevsky, a UN legal expert who oversees Human Rights Voice, said: “So where did the camouflage tribunal in this case get its ‘facts’? Of course, the UN. The UN’s highest bodies – the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council – have never even condemned Hamas terrorists and their October 7 atrocities.”
Bodies of 3 hostages held by Hamas during Israeli attacks recovered from Gaza
International Court of Justice President Nawaf Salam observes a hearing in The Hague on May 1, 2024. (Remco de Waal/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
Orde Kitley, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argued in a February speech: Wall Street Journal opinion piece Judge Salam’s political activities in Lebanon promote bias against Israel and violate the rules of the International Court of Justice, which he wrote states in its conflict of interest rules that no judge “may exercise any political or administrative function or engage in any other occupation of a professional nature.”
Kitley, the Arizona State University law professor, also noted that the International Court of Justice’s charter states that no judge “shall take part in the adjudication of a case in which he or she has previously been involved” as “counsel” or “in any other capacity.”
The IDF said its forces were continuing operations against terrorist targets in the Rafah area. (Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Office)
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Salam has reportedly run for prime minister in Lebanon’s past two elections and, according to Kitley’s article, served as Lebanon’s ambassador to the United Nations from 2007 to 2017. Salam routinely “condemned and voted against Israeli military action and presence in disputed areas,” the legal experts wrote.
Lebanese Ambassador to the United Nations Nawaf Salam speaks with Palestinian Permanent Observer Riyad Mansour during a Security Council meeting in New York City on September 28, 2011. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
According to one article Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) “We criticize and condemn Israel not because of the majority-Jewish character of its people,” Salam wrote on social media in 2015, and in another post said, “The portrayal of those who criticize Israeli policies as anti-Semitic is an attempt to intimidate and discredit them and we reject it.”
Later that year, JNS quoted him as saying: “…Palestine’s full membership in the UN and an end to the Israeli occupation are long overdue,” he tweeted.
Lebanon experts say the Middle Eastern country has been under the de facto control of the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hezbollah for more than a decade and has played a part in Hamas’ war by firing multiple missiles at Israel. Hezbollah, which is backed by the Iranian regime, also wants to destroy the Jewish state.
Fox News Digital reached out to the ICJ for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
The ICJ order has no force and the Israeli government said it would go ahead with a military operation to remove Hamas’ four battalions from Rafah.
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“No power on earth can stop Israel from defending its people and going after Hamas in the Gaza Strip,” Israeli government spokesman Avi Heyman said Friday of the ICJ order. He added: “We will destroy Hamas and restore peace and security to the people of Israel and the people of the Gaza Strip. A genocidal terrorist regime cannot exist on our southern border.”
The UN headquarters and flag are juxtaposed with a photo of an Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas terrorists. (Getty Images/Hamas Telegram)
Bayevsky noted how terror groups responded to Friday’s ruling: “The murderers and rapists of Hamas are nowhere more representative of this ‘legal’ farce than their own position. They reacted immediately, saying, ‘we welcome the World Court’s ruling,’ and then calling the Jewish state the ‘Zionist enemy’ whom they want to annihilate. In other words, it is those openly bent on genocide who support a ruling that claims to be anti-genocide: a UN court with friends in the lower classes.”
“The Court considers that, in accordance with its obligations under the Genocide Convention, Israel must immediately cease its military attacks and other actions in Rafah Governorate that could impose living conditions likely to lead to its physical destruction, in whole or in part, on the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip,” Judge Salam said in a statement reading the verdict.
Hamas massacred around 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7. The jihadist terrorist organization has kidnapped more than 250 people, with 125 hostages still being held in Rafah.
Judge Nawaf Salam spoke at the opening of the trial in The Hague, Netherlands, on May 16, 2024. (Reuters/Yves Herman)
Some ICJ judges and outside legal experts disagreed with the majority decision. Four of the ICJ’s 15 judges said the clause cited by Judge Salam in his oral statement did not oblige Israel to immediately cease military operations in Rafah. According to this interpretation, the Jewish state would only need to cease military operations if they were “likely to bring about physical destruction in whole or in part.”
Julia Sebutinde, the ICJ vice-president from Uganda who voted against all decisions against Israel, said: “This measure It’s not completely banned It prevents Israeli forces from operating in Rafah. Instead, it serves only to partially limit Israeli attacks in Rafah to the extent that they affect rights under the Genocide Convention.”
Sevtindeh added that “this directive could be misconstrued as ordering a unilateral ceasefire in Rafah, micromanaging hostilities in Gaza by restricting Israel’s ability to pursue legitimate military objectives, while allowing its enemies, including Hamas, to attack freely without Israel being able to respond.”
The Ugandan jurist also voted against all restrictions imposed on Israel in a January International Court of Justice ruling ordering Jerusalem to take measures to prevent genocidal acts against it as it battles Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
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Hamas terrorists are spotted during a military show in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, on July 20, 2017. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Aharon Barak, former Chief Justice of Israel’s Supreme Court and acting judge at the International Court of Justice, said: In his dissenting opinion The majority view states that “Israel should cease its military attacks in Rafah governorate only to the extent necessary to comply with its obligations under the Genocide Convention.”
“Israel will not be prevented from conducting military operations in Rafah governorate as long as it fulfills its obligations under the Genocide Convention,” he added. “The measures are conditional and safeguard Israel’s right to prevent and repel threats and attacks by Hamas, to defend its country and its people, and to release the hostages,” Barak noted.
