ISRAELI settlers have launched a wave of attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank following the UN’s highest court ruling their settlements there are illegal.
In Huwara near Nablus settlers burned Palestinian shops and fields, while in the South Hebron Hills they assaulted a family, beating a woman so badly she was hospitalised. Israeli soldiers were reported to be watching these attacks without interfering.
The International Court of Justice found on Friday that Israel’s massive expansion of settlements in the West Bank, Palestinian territory it has held under military occupation since 1967, was unlawful.
The judges pointed to a wide list of policies, including the building and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, use of the area’s natural resources, the annexation and imposition of permanent control over lands and discriminatory policies against Palestinians, all of which it said violated international law.
The court said Israel had no right to sovereignty in the territories, was violating international laws against acquiring territory by force and was impeding Palestinians’ right to self-determination. It said other nations were obliged not to “render aid or assistance in maintaining” Israel’s presence in the territories. It said Israel must end settlement construction immediately and that existing settlements must be removed, according to a summary of the more than 80-page opinion read out by court president Nawaf Salam.
Almost all countries, including Israel’s close allies the United States and Britain, already hold that the settlements in the West Bank are illegal, but the court called on the UN general assembly and security council to consider measures to end the Israeli occupation, raising pressure for international action.
Israel immediately rejected the ruling, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the West Bank is part of the historic homeland of the Jewish people, an openly expansionist rationale for the ongoing illegal occupation. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for Israel to formally annex the West Bank in response to the ICJ ruling, while the Knesset voted on Thursday against the two-state solution paid lip service by Israel’s Western allies, saying any Palestinian state would pose an “existential threat” to Israel.
In Britain, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the ruling vindicated the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions campaign against the occupation of Palestine, which the previous Conservative government sought to ban.
“For years, BDS campaigners have been demonised for opposing the occupation of Palestine.
“Today, they have been vindicated by an ICJ judgment, which called on states to stop aiding Israel’s unlawful presence in Palestinian territories.
“End the occupation. Free Palestine,” he said.