THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague opened per week of hearings on Monday on the authorized penalties of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, with representatives of the Palestinian Authority addressing the courtroom.
About 52 international locations and three worldwide organizations will deal with the judges of the Worldwide Court docket of Justice. Israel will not be actively collaborating within the hearings and has despatched solely a small group of judicial specialists to The Hague to look at the trial. South Africa, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Bangladesh and Belgium will deal with the courtroom on Tuesday.
The hearings, scheduled for February 19 to 26, observe a December 2022 request from the United Nations Normal Meeting (UNGA) to the Worldwide Court docket of Justice for an advisory, non-binding opinion on the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. A primary spherical of filings befell in July 2023, with a number of international locations submitting written paperwork on the problem to the courtroom. Israel put ahead arguments on the time towards the jurisdiction of the Worldwide Court docket of Justice on this matter. Nations had been then allowed to submit feedback and responses to the arguments beforehand offered in October. The opinion would possible be revealed by the tip of 2024, in keeping with Roy Schondorf of the Worldwide Affiliation of Jewish Legal professionals and Jurists (IJL).
Palestinian Overseas Minister Riad al-Maliki was the primary to deal with the courtroom. “I stand earlier than you as 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, half of them youngsters, are besieged and bombed, killed and maimed, starved and displaced,” he stated. The minister then spoke not solely of Palestinians residing within the West Financial institution and Gaza, but additionally of these residing in Israel, stating that “1.7 million Palestinians in Israel are handled as second-class residents… of their ancestral land.”
