THE HAGUE: The top United Nations court said Israel's settlement policy in the West Bank and east Jerusalem violates international law, as it delivered a non-binding advisory opinion on the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state, a ruling that could have more effect on international opinion than it will on Israeli policies.
International Court of Justice President Nawaf Salam was expected to take about an hour to read out the full opinion of the panel, which is made up of 15 judges from around the world.
In part of the opinion, he said the panel had found that "the transfer by Israel of settlers to the West Bank and Jerusalem as well as Israel’s maintenance of their presence, is contrary to article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.” The court also noted with “grave concern” that Israel’s settlement policy has been expanding.
The court also found that Israel's use of natural resources was “inconsistent” with its obligations under international law as an occupying power.
Friday’s hearing comes against the backdrop of Israel’s devastating 10-month military assault on Gaza, which was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel. In a separate case, the International Court of Justice is considering a South African claim that Israel’s campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide, a claim that Israel vehemently denies.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and 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 negotiations, while it has moved population there in settlements to solidify its hold. It has annexed east Jerusalem in a move that is not internationally recognized, while it withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but maintained a blockade of the territory after Hamas took power in 2007. The international community generally considers all three areas to be occupied territory.
At hearings in February, then-Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki accused Israel of apartheid and urged the United Nations’ top court to declare that Israel’s occupation of lands sought by the Palestinians is illegal and must end immediately and unconditionally for any hope for a two-state future to survive.
Israel, which normally considers the United Nations and international tribunals as unfair and biased, did not send a legal team to the hearings. But it submitted written comments, saying that the questions put to the court are prejudiced and “fail to recognize Israel’s right and duty to protect its citizens,” address Israeli security concerns or acknowledge Israel-Palestinian agreements to negotiate issues, including “the permanent status of the territory, security arrangements, settlements, and borders.”
The Palestinians presented arguments in February along with 49 other nations and three international organizations.
Erwin van Veen, a senior research fellow at the Clingendael think tank in The Hague, said that if the court rules that Israel’s policies in the West Bank and east Jerusalem breach international law, that is unlikely to change Israeli policies but it would “isolate Israel further internationally, at least from a legal point of view.”
He said such a ruling would “worsen the case for occupation. It removes any kind of legal, political, philosophical underpinning of the Israeli expansion project.”
It would also strengthen the hand of “those who seek to advocate against it” — such as the grassroots Palestinian-led movement advocating boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
He said it also could increase the number of countries that recognize the state of Palestine, in particular in the Western world, following the recent example of Spain and Norway and Ireland.”
It is not the first time the ICJ has been asked to give its legal opinion on Israeli policies. Two decades ago, the court ruled that Israel’s West Bank separation barrier was “contrary to international law.” Israel boycotted those proceedings, saying they were politically motivated.
Israel says the barrier is a security measure. Palestinians say the structure amounts to a massive land grab because it frequently dips into the West Bank.
The U.N. General Assembly voted by a wide margin in December 2022 to ask the world court for the advisory opinion. Israel vehemently opposed the request that was promoted by the Palestinians. Fifty countries abstained from voting.
Israel has built well over 100 settlements, according to the anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now. The West Bank settler population has grown by more than 15% in the past five years to more than 500,000 Israelis, according to a pro-settler group.
Israel also has annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city to be its capital. An additional 200,000 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 ones.
The international community considers all settlements to be illegal or obstacles to peace since they are built on lands sought by the Palestinians for their state.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line government is dominated by settlers and their political supporters. Netanyahu has given his finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, a former settler leader, unprecedented authority over settlement policy. Smotrich has used this position to cement Israel’s control over the West Bank by pushing forward plans to build more settlement homes and to legalize outposts.
Authorities recently approved the appropriation of 12.7 square kilometers (nearly 5 square miles) of land in the Jordan Valley, a strategic piece of land deep inside the West Bank, according to a copy of the order obtained by The Associated Press. Data from Peace Now, the tracking group, indicate it was the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo accords at the start of the peace process.
Top UN court says Israel’s settlement policy in occupied territories violates international law
https://arab.news/656g8
Top UN court says Israel’s settlement policy in occupied territories violates international law
- The ruling is expected to have more effect on international opinion than it will on Israeli policies
- Israel has built over 100 settlements, according to anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now
Queen Rania of Jordan hosts Ramadan iftar for women leaders in Aqaba
- Attendees congratulated on occasions of Ramadan, International Women’s Day
- Governor of Aqaba welcomes queen, expresses gratitude for her efforts to empower women
LONDON: Queen Rania of Jordan hosted a Ramadan iftar banquet on Thursday at the Prince Rashid Club in Aqaba.
Women leaders and activists from various sectors in Aqaba, a governorate on the Red Sea in southern Jordan, attended the event.
Queen Rania congratulated the attendees on Ramadan and the upcoming International Women’s Day, which will be marked on March 8, the Jordan News Agency reported.
She praised the contributions of Jordanian women in the workforce and the labor market, as well as their roles in caring for their families to provide comfort and reassurance at home.
Khaled Al-Hajjaj, the governor of Aqaba, welcomed the queen to the city and expressed gratitude for her efforts to empower women.
Mahmoud Khalifat, the director general of Aqaba Ports Corporation, and Muhannad Al-Naser, director of Prince Rashid Club, were also present.
Iraq authorities ‘working to find academic kidnapped in Baghdad’
BAGHDAD: Iraq’s national security adviser said that authorities were actively searching for Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli Russian academic kidnapped nearly two years ago in Baghdad.
Tsurkov, a doctoral student at Princeton University and fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, has been missing in Iraq since March 2023.
Israeli authorities said later she had been kidnapped, blaming a pro-Iranian group for her disappearance.
National Security Adviser Qassem Al-Araji said “Iraqi authorities are working under the prime minister’s direction” to solve the issue.
“The security services are mobilized to locate her and find the group that kidnapped her,” he said, adding there had been no claims of responsibility for her abduction or demands for her release.
“We have to operate discreetly and through intermediaries” to locate her, he said.
Tsurkov, who had likely entered Iraq on her Russian passport, had traveled to the country as part of her doctoral studies.
An Iraqi security source told AFP that the last trip was not Tsurkov’s first visit to Iraq.
In November 2023, Iraqi channel Al Rabiaa TV aired the first hostage video of Tsurkov known to the public since her kidnapping.
AFP was unable to independently verify the footage or determine whether her statement was coerced.
In the video, Tsurkov mentioned the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah of holding her, but the armed faction has implied it was not involved in her disappearance.
Charity kitchen brings hope to displaced Palestinians
- Israeli military raid launched in the West Bank weeks ago has uprooted more than 40,000 people
TULKARM: At a makeshift kitchen inside a city office building, volunteers rub paprika, oil and salt on slabs of chicken before arraying them on trays and slipping them into an oven.
Once the meat is done, it is divided into portions and tucked into plastic foam containers along with piles of yellow rice scooped from large steel pots.
The unpaid chefs at the Yasser Arafat Charity Kitchen in Tulkarm hope their labors will bring joy to displaced Palestinians trying to mark Ramadan.
An Israeli military raid launched in the West Bank weeks ago has uprooted more than 40,000 people.
Israel says it was meant to stamp out militancy in the occupied region, which has experienced a surge of violence since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.
The raid has been deadly and destructive, emptying several urban refugee camps that house descendants of Palestinians who fled wars with Israel decades ago.
The refugees have been told they will not be allowed to return for a year.
In the meantime, many of them have no access to kitchens, are separated from their communities, and are struggling to mark the end of the daily Ramadan fast with what are typically lavish meals.
“The situation is difficult,” said Abdullah Kamil, governor of the Tulkarm area.
He said some are drawing hope from the charity kitchen, which has expanded its usual operations to provide daily meals for up to 700 refugees, an effort to “meet the needs of the people, especially during the month of Ramadan.”
For Mansour Awfa, 60, the meals are a bright spot in a dark time.
He fled from the Tulkarm refugee camp in early February and does not know when he can return. “This is the house where I was raised, where I lived, and where I spent my life,” he said of the camp. “I’m not allowed to go there.”
Awfa, his wife, and four children live in a relative’s city apartment, where they sleep on thin mattresses on the floor.
“Where do we go? Where is there to go?” he asked. “But thanks to God, we await meals and aid from some warmhearted people.”
At least 48 killed in ‘most violent’ Syria unrest since Assad ouster: monitor
- Pro-Assad fighters killed 16 security personnel while 28 fighters “oyal to ousted ruler Bashar Assad and four civilians reported killed
- Huweija, who headed air force intelligence from 1987 to 2002, has long been a suspect in the 1977 murder of Lebanese Druze leader Kamal Bek Jumblatt
DAMASCUS: Fierce fighting between Syrian security forces and gunmen loyal to deposed ruler Bashar Assad killed 48 people on Thursday, a war monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the clashes in the coastal town of Jableh and adjacent villages were “the most violent attacks against the new authorities since Assad was toppled” in December.
Pro-Assad fighters killed 16 security personnel while 28 fighters “loyal” to ousted President Bashar Assad and four civilians were also killed, it said.
The fighting struck in the Mediterranean coastal province of Latakia, the heartland of the ousted president’s Alawite minority who were considered bastions of support during his rule.
Mustafa Kneifati, a security official in Latakia, said that in “a well-planned and premeditated attack, several groups of Assad militia remnants attacked our positions and checkpoints, targeting many of our patrols in the Jableh area.”
He added that the attacks resulted in “numerous martyrs and injured among our forces” but did not give a figure.
Kneifati said security forces would “work to eliminate their presence.” “We will restore stability to the region and protect the property of our people,” he declared.
The UK-based observatory said most of the security personnel killed were from the former rebel bastion of Idlib in the northwest.
During the operation, security forces captured and arrested a former head of air force intelligence, one of the Assad family’s most trusted security agencies, state news agency SANA reported.
“Our forces in the city of Jableh managed to arrest the criminal General Ibrahim Huweija,” SANA said.
“He is accused of hundreds of assassinations during the era of the criminal Hafez Assad,” Bashar Assad’s father and predecessor.
Huweija, who headed air force intelligence from 1987 to 2002, has long been a suspect in the 1977 murder of Lebanese Druze leader Kamal Bek Jumblatt.
His son and successor Walid Jumblatt retweeted the news of his arrest with the comment: “Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest).”
The provincial security director said security forces clashed with gunmen loyal to an Assad-era special forces commander in another village in Latakia, after authorities reportedly launched helicopter strikes.
“The armed groups that our security forces were clashing with in the Latakia countryside were affiliated with the war criminal Suhail Al-Hassan,” the security director told SANA.
Nicknamed “The Tiger,” Hassan led the country’s special forces and was frequently described as Assad’s “favorite soldier.” He was responsible for key military advances by the Assad government in 2015.
Alawite leaders call for peaceful protests
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had earlier reported “strikes launched by Syrian helicopters on armed men in the village of Beit Ana and the surrounding forests, coinciding with artillery strikes on a neighboring village.”
SANA reported that militias loyal to the ousted president had opened fire on “members and equipment of the defense ministry” near the village, killing one security force member and wounding two.
Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera reported that its photographer Riad Al-Hussein was wounded in the clashes but that he was doing well.
A defense ministry source later told SANA that large military reinforcements were being deployed to the Jableh area.
Alawite leaders later called in a statement on Facebook for “peaceful protests” in response to the helicopter strikes, which they said had targeted “the homes of civilians.”
The security forces imposed overnight curfews on Alawite-populated areas, including Latakia, the port city of Tartus and third city Homs, SANA reported.
In other cities around the country, crowds gathered “in support of the security forces,” it added.
Tensions erupted after residents of Beit Ana, the birthplace of Suhail Al-Hassan, prevented security forces from arresting a person wanted for trading arms, the Observatory said.
Security forces subsequently launched a campaign in the area, resulting in clashes with gunmen, it added.
Tensions erupted after at least four civilians were killed during a security operation in Latakia, the monitor said on Wednesday.
Security forces launched the campaign in the Daatour neighborhood of the city on Tuesday after an ambush by “members of the remnants of Assad militias” killed two security personnel, state media reported.
Islamist rebels led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham launched a lightning offensive that toppled Assad on December 8.
The country’s new security forces have since carried out extensive campaigns seeking to root out Assad loyalists from his former bastions.
Residents and organizations have reported violations during those campaigns, including the seizing of homes, field executions and kidnappings.
Syria’s new authorities have described the violations as “isolated incidents” and vowed to pursue those responsible.
UN experts condemn Israeli move to reopen ‘gates of hell’ and unilaterally alter ceasefire terms
- Israel’s government said on Sunday it was suspending deliveries of all goods to Gaza, including critical, life-saving aid
- This is ‘a gross violation of international law. As an occupying power, Israel is legally obligated’ to provide food, medicine and other aid, the experts say
NEW YORK CITY: More than 20 UN independent human rights experts have denounced the decision by the Israeli government to block all humanitarian aid to Gaza and resume a total siege of the territory.
They warned that this breaks the terms of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas, breaks international law and puts the prospects for peace in jeopardy.
In a joint statement on Thursday, the experts condemned Israel’s decision on Sunday to suspend deliveries of all goods to Gaza, including critical, life-saving aid. It follows an announcement by the Israeli war Cabinet that it was prepared to withdraw from the ceasefire agreement, with some ministers openly calling for reopening the “gates of hell” in the war-battered enclave.
“This action constitutes a gross violation of international law,” the experts said. “As an occupying power, Israel is legally obligated to ensure the provision of sufficient food, medical supplies, and other forms of aid.
“By blocking such essential services, including those vital to sexual and reproductive health and disability support, Israel is weaponizing humanitarian assistance.”
Such actions represent “serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law,” they added, and might amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute.
The independent experts who put their names to the statement included Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Michael Fakhri, the special rapporteur on the right to food. Special rapporteurs are part of what is known as the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council. They are independent experts who work on a voluntary basis, are not members of UN staff and are not paid for their work.
They also criticized Israel’s general approach to the ceasefire agreement, which initially was hailed as a pathway to peace. Instead of fostering a cessation of hostilities, however, the agreement has been marked by continued violence and destruction.
At least 100 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since it took effect on Jan. 19. The total death toll in the territory since the war began in October 2023 now stands at 48,400, as Israeli forces persist with airstrikes and ground assaults.
“The harsh conditions of the ceasefire, marked by limited aid and scarce resources, have only exacerbated the suffering of Gaza’s population,” the experts wrote.
“The decision to reimpose a total siege on Gaza — where 80 percent of farmland and civilian infrastructure has already been destroyed — will undoubtedly worsen the humanitarian crisis.”
While some states and regional organizations have attempted to justify Israel’s actions as a response to alleged ceasefire violations by Hamas, the experts noted that repeated violations of the agreement by Israel have largely gone unreported.
They called for the mediators of the ceasefire deal, Egypt, Qatar and the US, to intervene to help preserve the agreement in accordance with international obligations. They also stressed that Israel’s actions should be viewed within the context of the ongoing illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, a situation the International Court of Justice has demanded came an end.
The experts concluded by issuing a strong call for global action: “Nations must recall their obligations under international law and act to halt this brutal assault on the Palestinian people. The international community cannot allow lawlessness and injustice to prevail.”
As the world watches the devastating effects of the latest Israeli decision, the experts warned that fragile hopes for peace in the region continue to fade, and the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is far from over.
The initial phase of the ceasefire expired on Sunday without Israel and Hamas reaching an agreement on an extension or a way forward for the deal.
