THE HAGUE (AP) — The United Nations' highest court began a historic hearing Monday on the legality of Israel's 57-year occupation of land in a Palestinian state.
The hearing before the International Court of Justice was scheduled to last six days. Monday's meeting began with an intervention by Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, representing the Palestinians. The process responded to a request to the United Nations General Assembly that the body issue a non-binding opinion on Israeli policy in the occupied territories.
Although the case began in the court's Great Hall of Justice during the war between Israel and Hamas, in reality it will focus on Israel's indefinite control over the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
The Palestinian legal team was expected to tell the international panel of judges that Israel has violated the ban on territorial conquest by annexing large swaths of occupied land, discussing the Palestinians' right to self-determination and a system of racial discrimination and coercion denounced apartheid. in these areas.
“We want to hear new words from the court,” said Omar Awadallah, who heads the United Nations Organizations Department at the Palestinian Foreign Ministry.
After the Palestinians spoke in court on Monday, 51 countries and three international organizations would take a stand like never before. It will likely take months for the court to decide.
Israel was not expected to intervene during the hearings, although the country was able to provide a written statement.
Yuval Shany, a law professor at the Hebrew University and a lecturer at the Israel Democracy Institute, said Israel would likely justify the occupation on security grounds, especially in the absence of a peace deal.
Israel is likely to mention the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas-led Gaza militants that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 250 hostage and taken to the enclave.
However, Palestinians and prominent human rights groups argue that the occupation goes far beyond defensive measures. They claim it has become an apartheid system, reinforced by building settlements on occupied land, giving Palestinians second-class citizen status and aimed at maintaining Jewish hegemony from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. Israel rejects all allegations of apartheid.
Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six-Day War. The Palestinians claim all three areas to form an independent state. Israel views the West Bank as a disputed territory whose future should be decided through negotiations.