Is Israel breaking the law in the West Bank?
EXPLAINER: The occupation is unfair to the Palestinians and the settlements are foolish, but Israel's security concerns are real and legality is not the issue.
Fresh from examining claims of genocide in Gaza, the International Court of Justice in the Hague has just spent a week considering whether Israel’s occupation of and Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Jerusalem are illegal under international law.
Most countries seem to think so, and people everywhere are obsessed by Israel and the Palestinians, so the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ for an opinion (but not about Iran executing people for “sodomy” or China enslaving Uighurs). Speaking against Israel’s occupation in recent days were Russia (which occupies and trashes swaths of Ukraine) and Turkey (which oppresses the Kurds). With such advice in hand, the 15-judge panel should rule in a few months.
I myself call for a “two state solution” for Israel-Palestine, and have taken some heat for it. But on Al Jazeera this week, I was asked how Israel can ignore the ICJ’s investigation of illegality; well, is Al Jazeera viewers deserve an answer, then so do our readers here! International law is even fuzzier than justice itself — but I shall try.
Some history is needed, and I shall keep it short.
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