In a historic ruling, ICJ declares Israeli occupation unlawful, calls for settlements to be evacuated, and for Palestinian reparations

In a scathing Advisory Opinion sure to tighten the legal screws on Israel and place its Western allies in a huge bind, the world’s supreme judicial body declared today that Israel’s 57-year occupation and settlement of the West Bank and East Jerusalem are unlawful, that both must end, that settlements must be evacuated, and that Palestinians — denied their inalienable right to self-determination – must be compensated for their losses and allowed to return to their lands. “The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying Power, through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, violates fundamental principles of international law and renders Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful,” Lebanese court President Nawaf Salam told the packed court chambers at the Peace Palace in The Hague. And, Judge Nawaf said, reading from the ICJ’s 83-page Advisory Opinion, the international community is obliged not to recognize as legal the internationally wrongful acts Israel has carried out in the course of its prolonged occupation, nor render aid and assistance in furthering them. All nine clauses of the Advisory Opinion’s operative statement...