Rabat – The UN General Assembly passed a resolution on Saturday calling on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to give an advisory opinion on the Israeli “occupation” of Palestinian territories.
The resolution received a favorable vote from 87 countries, including Morocco, with 26 countries opposing it and 53 abstaining.
In addition to giving an opinion regarding Israeli “occupation, settlement and annexation,” the resolution also asked the ICJ to include measures to alter the character and status of Jerusalem.
The last time the ICJ weighed in on the conflict, it ruled that Israel’s wall in the occupied West Bank was illegal.
The vote was welcomed by Palestinian leaders. “The vote… reflects the victory of Palestinian diplomacy, led by the President, who was pressured to withdraw or postpone the decision, but he refused,” Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization Hussein Al Sheikh tweeted.
Alongside Israel and the US, the United Kingdom and Germany also opposed the resolution. Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, said that “no international body can decide that the Jewish people are ‘occupiers’ in their own homeland.”
“Any decision from a judicial body which receives its mandate from the morally bankrupt and politicized UN is completely illegitimate,” he added.
The ICJ is the top UN court that specializes in dealing with disputes between states, but while its rulings are binding, it has no mechanisms to enforce them.
The year of 2022 witnessed escalated tensions and violence between Israel and Palestine, manifesting in invasions of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli forces, the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, and a military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians are worried that the escalations will continue through 2023, since Benjamin Netenyahu has returned to the prime minister office with what is considered by observers to be Israel’s most right-wing government to date.
