We are once again saddened to see core elements of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict litigated before international courts rather than addressed through serious diplomacy to end the conflict and occupation once and for all.
This decision should serve as a blaring warning siren for Israel to reverse course – and veer away from the path to annexation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies have charted. J Street has long warned that failure to make meaningful progress toward a peaceful, negotiated resolution to this conflict – a shift that ensures the security, rights and freedoms of Israelis and Palestinians alike – invites the kind of scrutiny we see in today’s International Court of Justice advisory opinion.
Key parts of the Court’s opinion affirm what many experts, including many Israelis, have long acknowledged: Relentless right-wing efforts to deepen the occupation of the Palestinian Territory involve not just multiple serious violations of international law and human rights, but constitute an illegal program of annexation.
While one can reasonably disagree with some of the Court’s determinations, one underlying fact is undeniable: Ongoing occupation – driven by the settlement movement and with attendant systematic deprivations, displacement and discrimination against the Palestinian people – is inconsistent with international law and Israel’s own founding values of justice, equality and peace. More than being unlawful and unjust, the Israeli far-right’s efforts to push Palestinians from their land and claim it for Israel are deeply corrosive to Israel’s security, democracy and international legitimacy.
We urge the Biden Administration and US lawmakers to view the Court’s disheartening but foreseeable judgment as further evidence of the urgent need for bold, regional diplomacy to end the suffering, violence and injustice that the conflict and deepening occupation have visited upon far too many Israelis and Palestinians for far too long.
Lastly, we reiterate our opposition to any efforts to delegitimize or penalize the Court or its officials, even where one disagrees strongly with their determinations. Around the world, dictators and would-be autocrats are assaulting the rule of law and international norms. Efforts to undermine the rules-based order or multilateral institutions, constructed with US leadership over generations, harm rather than help US and global interests.