The International Court of Justice made a non-binding ruling on Saturday that Israel’s territories in Judea and Samaria are illegal and must be dismantled immediately; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the ruling, “Israelis are not occupiers of their own land.”
Although the ICJ’s ruling can’t be enforced, its decisions may affect Israel’s reputation internationally.
The ICJ ruled the settlements Israel has established since 1967 in Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem are “illegal” and that Israel is obligated to abandon the settlements “as rapidly as possible.”
The ICJ also said that Israel must “repeal all legislation and measures creating or maintaining the unlawful situation,” including those that “discriminate against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” and provide reparations for any damage caused by its “wrongful acts.”
In addition, the ICJ called on all members of the UN not to recognize Israeli settlements or to provide any aid to Israel that would strengthen its hold on the territories.
Israel refrained from the hearings and called them “prejudicial” and “tendentious.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned to ruling and declared, “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.”
