JVL Statement on the ICJ Ruling on Israeli Illegal Occupation

JVL calls on the Labour government to swiftly and fully enforce the actions recommended in the International Court of Justice Judgement on the illegality of Israeli settlements.

The Judgement lays out in great legal detail how Israel’s continued occupation of both the West Bank and East Jerusalem contravenes multiple international statutes. It also rules that there is de facto illegal occupation of Gaza because of Israeli control of entry and exit from Gaza and the steps it takes to impede economic development and everyday life.

JVL welcomes the Judgement. While much of the careful legal analysis in the Judgement is new, the underlying description of illegal occupation and apartheid is not. The structures and the brutality used to enforce them have been spelled out over years by Palestinians; their Jewish and non-Jewish allies; by authoritative NGOs; and by the UN’s own rapporteurs and commissions.

JVL welcomes the ruling that Israel’s actions not only constitute illegal occupation and settlement but also constitute Apartheid under Article 3 of the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Against the ICJ’s 285 detailed paragraphs and numerous legal citations Netanyahu could only offer bluster.

“The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land — not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, not in the land of our ancestors in Judea and Samaria. No false decision in The Hague will distort this historical truth, just as the legality of Israeli settlement in all the territories of our homeland cannot be contested.”

This claim is derived from a partisan interpretation of Jews’ religious texts; such texts, regardless of their merits as moral guidance, cannot constitute any agreed international code of acceptable action nor afford rights under international law. The widely varying precepts of different texts would mean unresolvable conflict and chaos if each religious community acted unilaterally following their own code.

Britain, under the Conservative Government, joined the United States and a few other countries at the UN General Assembly in voting against asking the ICJ to rule on Israel’s actions.

The Judgment at this stage is only advisory. It will only be mandatorily enforceable following a decision of the UN Security Council. Many states and organisations have called for Security Council action in the past but these repeated demands have always been blocked by the US, frequently with Britain’s support

The new Labour Government must abide by its pre-election promises to respect international law and to vote in favour of adoption of the ruling by the Security Council. The Government must use whatever influence it has with the US to get it to at least abstain in the Security Council vote and not yet again veto enforcement of international law.

US action, if not challenged, could make this detailed legal scrutiny null and void.

We call on the British Government, irrespective of US action, to meet the obligations the Court has placed on all countries by:

• immediately ending arms sales to Israel and purchases of Israeli armaments; and
• speedily preparing and implementing a wider programme of sanctions;

and be supportive of citizen action in support of the Judgment by:

• ceasing to harass those who take direct action to promote boycott and divestment in order to help force Israel to act in accordance with international law; and
• repealing the Conservative laws that criminalise peaceful direct action.

We urge defenders of international law in every country to make similar demands of their governments.