US defends Israel's occupation of the West Bank at the UN Supreme Court
The United States on Wednesday defended Israel's decades-long occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, arguing before the UN's highest court that Israel faced “very real security needs.”
The defense came a day after the United States issued its third veto of a call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in the United Nations Security Council. fighting to help the citizens of Gaza.
The latest evidence of American support for Israel came at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where Richard C. Visek, acting legal adviser at the US Department of State, urged a panel of fifteen judges not to call for the immediate withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories. Palestinian area.
He said only the creation of an independent Palestinian state that can live “safely and securely alongside” Israel could bring about lasting peace, reiterating a long-standing US position, but the prospect of that seems even more elusive amid of the war in Gaza.
“This conflict cannot be resolved by force or unilateral actions,” Mr Visek said. “Negotiations are the path to lasting peace.”
The court will hear six days of arguments over the legality of Israel's occupation of Palestinian-majority areas, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which have been the subject of years of debate and resolutions at the UN. The hearings – involving more than 50 countries – were called long before Israel went to war against Hamas in Gaza, but have become part of a concerted global effort to end the conflict and examine the legality of Israel's policies toward the Palestinians.
As the judges listened to arguments in the stately, wood-paneled courtroom in the Netherlands, the dynamics of the Israeli occupation played out Wednesday in the West Bank city of Jenin. In a nighttime attack that the Israeli military said was aimed at “terrorism,” Israeli forces killed three people and captured at least 14 others.
Jenin, a more than seventy-year-old refugee camp that is now a busy neighborhood, has long been a center of armed struggle against the Israeli occupation. And Israeli military attacks, while common for years, have become much more frequent since the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, which Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people.
Israeli forces have arrested hundreds of Palestinians in raids on the West Bank in recent months. Deadly violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers has reached record levels, and Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also increased, underscoring the urgency of events in The Hague.
And on Wednesday evening, Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's war cabinet, warned that Israel was preparing to launch an operation in the Gazan city of Rafah, near the southern border, once civilians there were evacuated. He added that if no agreement was reached on the release of the hostages still held in Gaza, the Israeli army would continue to operate during the holy month of Ramadan, which begins in March.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled to Rafah after fighting in Gaza drove them from their homes. The international community has condemned Israel's plan to invade the city due to the large numbers of people seeking refuge there.
“History will judge us by how we respond today,” Jasmine Moussa, legal adviser to Egypt's Foreign Ministry, told the court on Wednesday, as she argued for “the inalienable, permanent and unqualified right to self-determination of the Palestinian people . .”
“One only has to look at Israel's brutal large-scale destruction of Gaza today, after years of imposing medieval methods, siege and blockade, to realize the magnitude of Israel's violation of this principle,” she said.
It is the first time that the court has been asked to issue an opinion on the Israeli occupation. The UN General Assembly asked the court more than a year ago to assess the legality of Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories, before Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, which Gaza health authorities say has killed more than 29,000 people .
Israel has said it will not participate in the hearings and sent a letter to the court last year arguing they were unfounded and failed to “recognize Israel's right and obligation to protect its citizens” or its right to safety.
The United States has strongly defended Israel's campaign in Gaza, which began after the October 7 attacks. But while U.S. officials have also urged Israel to scale back its military campaign and do more to protect civilians, America's defense of Israel has increasingly put the country at odds, even with close allies like France, Canada and Japan.
On Tuesday, its isolation was on display at the UN Security Council: It produced the sole veto of a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, saying it would disrupt efforts to free hostages in Gaza. Thirteen other countries supported the resolution, and Britain abstained.
On Wednesday, Mr. Visek, the State Department's legal adviser, asked the U.N. court to uphold the “established framework” for peace that he said the U.N. bodies had agreed to — a framework that depends on a “ broader end to belligerence” against Israel – rather than heeding other countries' calls for Israel's “unilateral and unconditional withdrawal” from the occupied territories.
The Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7 were a reminder of the threats the country faces and its security needs, Mr. Visek said, “and they remain.”
“Unfortunately, these needs have been ignored by many of the participants in arguing how the court should assess the questions presented,” he said, referring to other countries' testimonies during the hearings.
Mr Visek's actions immediately preceded that of Vladimir Tarabrin, the Russian ambassador to the Netherlands.
Taking the microphone, Mr Tarabrin said Russia appreciates its “stable relations” with Israel and expressed his condolences over October 7. But in what appeared to be a thinly veiled swipe at the United States, he said Russia “cannot accept logic.” of those who “seek to defend indiscriminate violence against civilians” in Gaza by citing Israel's right to defend itself.
“Violence can only lead to more violence,” he said. Mr. Tarabrin criticized Israel for many of the same things Russia is accused of in its war in Ukraine, including annexation, deportation, population transfers and other violations of the Geneva Conventions.
Both Russia and the United States have used the hearings to promote their own agendas, and they have accused each other of hypocrisy.
The countries have been repeatedly accused of having a double standard at the UN, with the United States not pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza while demanding one in Ukraine, while Russia criticizes Israel for some of the things that Moscow has done in Ukraine.
The court, which often handles conservative disputes between countries, has recently become a place where countries can oppose Israel. Last month, South Africa argued in court that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza – an accusation that Israel strongly rejected. The judges did not rule on that claim, but issued a preliminary injunction for Israel to take steps to prevent genocide in Gaza.
South Africa on Tuesday condemned Israel's policies against Palestinians, calling it “a more extreme form of apartheid,” the race-based system of laws that deprived black South Africans for decades.
Israel has long denied accusations that it operates an apartheid system, calling such accusations a slur and pointing to what it says is a history of condemnation by UN bodies and tribunals.
The United States has remained Israel's staunchest defender internationally. But the Biden administration, under increasing pressure from parts of the Democratic Party, has also shown signs of impatience with Israel's conduct of the war, the rising toll in Gaza and the fate of Palestinians under Israeli occupation.
President Biden said this month that Israel's military response in Gaza had been “overblown” and that the immense civilian suffering “must stop.” The comments came days after Mr Biden imposed broad financial sanctions on four Israeli men over violent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.
After the hearings, which are expected to conclude on Monday, the court will issue a non-binding opinion. That decision is expected to take several months.