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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://popularresistance.org/what-will-happen-after-the-icj-delegitimizes-israels-occupation-of-palestine/">popularresistance.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">What Will Happen After The ICJ Delegitimizes Israel’s Occupation?</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Ramzy Baroud, Mintpress News.- January 12, 2023<br></div>
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<img src="cid:ii_lcv06pqf0" alt="image.png" width="392" height="221"><br><p><font size="1">Above Photo: An elderly man waves Palestinian flag while he
confronts an Israeli soldier during a protest against Israeli
settlements in the village of Beit Dajan near the West Bank city of
Nablus. Nasser Ishtayeh | Sipa via AP Images.</font></p>
<h2>Once more, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will offer a
legal opinion on the consequences of the Israeli Occupation of
Palestine.</h2>
<p>A historic United Nations vote on December 31<a href="https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20221231-un-asks-icj-to-consider-consequences-for-israeli-occupation-of-palestinian-territories" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>called</a><span> </span>on
the ICJ to look at the Israeli Occupation in terms of legal
consequences, the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination
and the responsibility of all UN Member States in bringing the
protracted Israeli Occupation to an end. A special emphasis will be
placed on the “demographic composition, character and status” of
Occupied Jerusalem.</p>
<p>The last time the ICJ was asked to offer a legal opinion on the matter was in 2004. However, back then, the<a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/en/case/131" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>opinion</a><span> </span>was largely centered around the “legal consequences arising from the construction of the (Israeli Apartheid) wall.”</p>
<p>While it is true that the ICJ concluded that the totality of the
Israeli actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are unlawful
under international law – the<a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.33_GC-IV-EN.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>Fourth Geneva Convention</a>, the relevant provision of the earlier<a href="https://www.eccpalestine.org/israels-obligations-as-an-occupying-power-under-international-law-its-violations-and-implications-for-eu-policy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>Hague Regulations</a><span> </span>and, of course, the numerous UN General Assembly and Security Council<a href="https://press.un.org/en/2016/sc12657.doc.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>Resolutions</a>
– this time around the ICJ is offering its view on Israel’s attempt at
making what is meant to be a temporary military Occupation, a permanent
one.</p>
<p>In other words, the ICJ could – and most likely will – delegitimize
every single Israeli action taken in Occupied Palestine since 1967. This
time around, the consequences will not be symbolic, as is often the
case in UN-related decisions on Palestine.</p>
<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has done more than any
other Israeli leader to ‘normalize’ the Israeli Occupation of
Palestine, was understandably angry following the UN vote,<a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israel-s-netanyahu-says-un-vote-for-icj-opinion-despicable-/2777117" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>describing</a><span> </span>it as ‘despicable’.</p>
<p>His other coalition partners were equally intransigent.</p>
<p>The Israeli “Occupation of (the) West Bank is permanent and Israel
has the right to annex it,” said Knesset Member Zvika Fogel, during an<a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230102-occupation-of-west-bank-is-permanent-israeli-mk-says/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>interview</a><span> </span>on January 1 with Israeli Radio 103FM.</p>
<p>More than anything else, Fogel’s words encapsulate the new reality in
Israel and Palestine. Gone are the days of political ambiguity
regarding Israel’s ultimate motives in the Occupied Territories.</p>
<p>Indeed, Israel is now trying to manage a whole new phase of its
colonial project in Palestine, an endeavor that began in earnest in
1947-48 and, in Israel’s own calculation, is about to end with the total
colonization of Palestine – Israel’s version of a ‘one-state solution’
that is predicated on apartheid and racial discrimination.</p>
<p>Fogel, whose party, Otzma Yehudit, is an important member of
Netanyahu’s new rightwing coalition, does not reflect his personal views
or those of his ideological camp alone.</p>
<p>The new government, packed with extremists, the likes of Bezalel
Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Yoav Galant, among others, is now
committed to an anti-peace agenda as a matter of policy. As soon as the
new government was<a href="https://www.brusselstimes.com/345407/new-israeli-government-sworn-in-after-power-grab-by-far-right-parties" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>sworn in</a><span> </span>on December 28, it<a href="https://www.dw.com/en/israel-new-netanyahu-government-vows-to-expand-settlements/a-64228466" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>announced</a><span> </span>that “the government will advance and develop settlements in all parts of Israel”.</p>
<p>Ben-Gvir, whose<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-far-right-minister-visits-contested-jerusalem-holy-site-media-reports-2023-01-03/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>raid</a><span> </span>of
Al-Aqsa Mosque in Occupied East Jerusalem raised much criticism
worldwide, is sending clear messages to Palestinians and the
international community at large: as far as Israel is concerned, no
international law is relevant, nothing is sacred and no inch of
Palestine is off limits.</p>
<p>This time, however, it is not business as usual.</p>
<p>Yes, Israel’s territorial expansion at the expense of Occupied
Palestine has been the common denominator among all Israeli governments
in the last 75 years; but various Israeli governments, including that of
Netanyahu’s early cabinets, found indirect ways to justify illegal
settlement constructions. So-called ‘natural expansion’ and ‘security’
needs were some of the many pretexts furnished by Israel to justify its
constant push for land acquisition by force.</p>
<p>Practically, none of this would have been possible if it were not for
the inexhaustible United States support of Israel – financially,
militarily and politically. Moreover, US<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/19/a-history-of-the-us-blocking-un-resolutions-against-israel" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>vetoes</a><span> </span>at
the UNSC and the relentless pressure on UNGA members allowed Israel to
circumvent international law unscathed. The outcome is today’s tragic
reality.</p>
<p>According to the official UN news website, there are currently nearly 700,000 illegal Jewish<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/11/1104792" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>settlers</a>. The Israeli NGO ‘Peace Now’ says that these Jewish settlers<a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/un-passes-resolution-to-seek-icj-opinion-on-israel-s-occupation-of-palestine/2776989" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>live</a><span> </span>in
145 illegal colonies in the Occupied West Bank, in addition to 140
settlement outposts, many of which are likely to be made official by the
new government.</p>
<p>In fact, the Netanyahu-led alliance has been formulated with the
understanding that the outposts would be legalized in the future, thus
receiving official government funding. This should not pose a major
political problem for Netanyahu, who, in 2020, had succeeded in selling
the idea to the Israeli Knesset of<a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/07/israelopt-10-things-you-need-to-know-about-annexation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>annexing</a><span> </span>much of the West Bank and is now<a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221124-reneging-on-abraham-accords-netanyahu-authorises-soft-annexation-of-west-bank/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>Determined</a><span> </span>to
carry out a process of ‘soft annexation’ – a de-facto annexation that
is likely to become legalized as a de jure annexation later on.</p>
<p>Nor would the full colonization of Palestine prove to be a legal
problem. Israel’s Nation-State Law of 2018 has already provided the
legal cover for Tel Aviv to flaunt international law and to do as it
pleases in terms of colonizing all of Palestine and marginalizing all of
the Palestinian rights. According to Israel’s new Basic Law, “the State
of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish People in which it realizes
its natural, cultural, religious and historical right to
self-determination”. It was this particular reference that was<a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230103-jewish-supremacy-is-state-policy-says-netanyahu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>cited</a><span> </span>in the new government’s statement on December 29.</p>
<p>And there are not many in Israel who are protesting this. In a recent<a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/ilan-pappe-on-the-socio-political-formations-behind-israels-neo-zionist-government/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span> </span>article</a><span> </span>in
the Palestine Chronicle, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe explains how the
current socio-political formations of Israeli society make it nearly
impossible for alternative mainstream politics to emerge, aside from the
three dominant rightwing and extremist currents at work in the
Netanyahu coalition: Ultra-Orthodox Jews, National Religious Jews and
Likud’s secular Jews.</p>
<p>This means that change in Israel could never come from Israel itself.
While Palestinians continue to resist, Arab and Muslim governments, and
the international community at large must confront Israel, using all
means available to end this travesty.</p>
<p>The ICJ’s opinion is very important, but without meaningful action, a
legal opinion alone will not reverse the sinister reality on the ground
in Palestine, especially when this reality is bankrolled, supported and
sustained by Washington and Israel’s other western allies.</p>
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