UN court opens hearings into Israel's occupation of lands sought for Palestine

Historic hearings opened on Monday at the United Nations top court into the legality of Israels 57year occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian stateThe hearings are to last six days before the International Court of Justice Mondays session started with Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad alMaliki speaking as a representative of the Palestinians The hearings follow a request submitted by the UN General Assembly for a nonbinding advisory opinion into Israels policies in the occupied territoriesThough the case opens at the courts Great Hall of Justice against the backdrop of the IsraelHamas war it focuses instead on Israels openended control over the occupied West Bank the Gaza Strip and annexed east JerusalemThe Palestinian legal team is expected to tell the panel of international judges that Israel has violated the prohibition on territorial conquest by annexing large swaths of occupied land and the Palestinians right to selfdetermination and has imposed a system of racial discrimination and apartheidldquoWe want to hear new words from the courtrdquo said Omar Awadallah the head of the UN organizations department in the Palestinian Foreign MinistryAfter the Palestinians address the court on Monday an unprecedented 51 countries and three international organizations will speak The court will likely take months to issue its opinionIsrael is not scheduled to speak during the hearings but could submit a written statementYuval Shany a law professor at Hebrew University and senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute said Israel will likely justify the ongoing occupation on security grounds especially in the absence of a peace dealIt is likely to point to the Oct 7 attack in which Hamasled militants from Gaza killed 1200 people across southern Israel and dragged 250 hostages back to the territoryHowever Palestinians and leading rights groups argue that the occupation goes far beyond defensive measures They say it has morphed into an apartheid system bolstered by settlement building on occupied lands that gives Palestinians secondclass status and is designed to maintain Jewish hegemony from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea Israel rejects any accusation of apartheidIsrael captured the West Bank east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war The Palestinians seek all three areas for an independent state Israel considers the West Bank to be disputed territory whose future should be decided in negotiationsIt has built 146 settlements across the West Bank according to watchdog group Peace Now many of which resemble fully developed suburbs and small towns The settlements are home to more than 500000 Jewish settlers while around 3 million Palestinians live in the territoryIsrael annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city to be its capital An additional 200000 Israelis live in settlements built in east Jerusalem that Israel considers to be neighborhoods of its capital Palestinian residents of the city face systematic discrimination making it difficult for them to build new homes or expand existing onesIsrael withdrew all of its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but continued to control the territorys airspace coastline and population registry Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza when the Palestinian militant Hamas group seized power there in 2007The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements to be illegal Israels annexation of east Jerusalem home to the citys most sensitive holy sites is not internationally recognizedIts not the first time the court has been asked to give an advisory opinion on Israeli policiesIn 2004 it said a separation barrier Israel built through east Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank was ldquocontrary to international lawrdquo It also called on Israel to immediately halt construction Israel has ignored the rulingAlso late last month the court ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death destruction and any acts of genocide in its campaign in Gaza The order came at a preliminary stage of a case filed by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide a charge that Israel deniedSouth Africas governing party the African National Congress has long compared Israels policies in Gaza and the West Bank to the apartheid regime of white minority rule in South Africa which restricted most Black people to iquesthomelandsiquest before ending in 1994This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever