Israeli settlements violate international law, UN Supreme Court rules

The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel’s “prolonged occupation” and settlement policy in Palestinian territories since 1967 are unlawful and must end quickly. The non-binding advisory opinion could intensify legal and diplomatic scrutiny of Israel amid its ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza.

The United Nations court ruled that Israel’s settlements in the West Bank, along with its “annexation” of East Jerusalem and continued control over certain parts of the Gaza Strip, violate several international laws and standards, including the Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention.

“The Court finds that Israel’s violations of the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force and of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people have a direct impact on the lawfulness of the continued presence of Israel, as the occupying power, in the occupied Palestinian territory,” the ICJ said.

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It added: “Israel’s continued abuse of its position as an occupying power, through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and its continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, violates fundamental principles of international law and renders Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful.”

The findings urge Israel to cease further settlement activities, dismantle existing settlements and pay reparations for damages caused by these violations.

The court found that Israeli laws, such as the 2018 Basic Law of the Nation State, and government policies promote permanent Israeli control over these territories, thereby calling into question the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with other senior government officials and settlement leaders, vehemently rejected the court’s decision, arguing that the Jewish people’s historic ties to areas like East Jerusalem and the West Bank — known in Israel as Judea and Samaria — legitimize their claim, despite international opposition.

During the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured parts of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, areas that the Palestinians wanted as an independent state.

“The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land, including our eternal capital Jerusalem, nor in Judea and Samaria, our historic homeland,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “No absurd opinion in The Hague can deny this historic truth or the legal right of Israelis to live in their own communities in our ancestral home.”

Israel did not participate in the oral hearings and filed a written statement calling the court’s questions “prejudicial” and “biased,” Agence France-Presse reported.

The Palestinian leadership welcomed the ICJ’s opinion, seeing it as a confirmation of their long-held positions on Israeli policy. The office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas described the decision as “historic” and called for its immediate implementation.

Hamas, the Islamic terrorist organization that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, also saw the ruling as a step by the international community to take action against the Israeli “occupation.”

The opinion, while unenforceable, carries weight in international diplomacy and has the potential to influence Israel’s international standing as it continues its war against Hamas in Gaza following the terror group’s Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel. Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reports that more than 38,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began. The figure makes no distinction between fighters and civilians.