The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (Commission) is calling for action at the UN in accordance with a July 19 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the matter.

The Court said Israel’s continuing presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful. Moreover, the Court said the UN General Assembly and Security Council must establish precise modalities and actions to “as rapidly as possible,” end the unlawful presence of Israeli settlers and settlements.

The Commission welcomed the ICJ’s opinion as a significant development toward Israel’s accountability, which the group has raised particularly since 2022.  

“The Commission has always stated that the root cause of the protracted conflict and cycles of violence is the occupation,” said Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission in a statement on Oct. 17.

“The Commission, concluded in its report to the General Assembly in 2022, that the occupation is unlawful under international law. The Commission welcomed the historic advisory opinion from the highest court in the United Nations system,” said the longtime legal scholar from South Africa.

The Court’s opinion was given at a hearing on the “Legal Consequences Arising From the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”

Along with the Commission’s legal analysis, the 12-page document included bold recommendations to Israel, UN Member States, the General Assembly and the Security Council on implementing the ICJ advice. It implores Israel to:

•       Implement a comprehensive plan of action to dismantle settlements.

•       Evacuate all settlers from occupied territory.

•       Return land, title and natural resources to the displaced Palestinians.

•       Repeal all restrictive and discriminatory laws and policies.

The Commission finds that all States have an international legal obligation not to recognize the occupation as lawful.

“Israel’s internationally wrongful acts give rise to State responsibility, not only for Israel but for all States,” said Ms. Pillay. “All States are obligated not to recognize territorial sovereignty claims made by Israel over the occupied territories,” she stated.

The South Africa-based lawyer added that States must “distinguish” in their dealings between Israel, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. For instance, a State must not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel or place its diplomatic representatives to Israel in Jerusalem.

“States must not render aid or assistance in maintaining the unlawful occupation. Aid and assistance includes financial, military and political aid or support,” said Ms. Pillay.

In addition, the Commission in line with the ICJ says States must also work towards the full realization of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.

The position paper provides the Commission’s view concerning state responsibility and how the General Assembly and Security Council can identify and implement ways to bring an end to the unlawful occupation.

However, there are shades of pessimism that the effort will be effective and more of the same, because of a history of pushback on the occupier state at the UN, only to be frustrated by the United States using its veto power to block any vote critical of Israel.

“In some ways, I do view it as more of the same,” said investigative journalist and activist Eugene Puryear.  He told The Final Call that while rulings from bodies like the ICJ are significant, the lack of enforcement from the UN renders these efforts “hollow” in practice.

However, “for the International Court of Justice to make the point was a milestone,” said Mr. Puryear, referring to the ICJ Advisory Opinion.

“But we still see the biggest issue is that the United Nations has to enforce it, and just like they haven’t enforced multiple resolutions that have laid out that the Israeli settlements are illegal,” he argued.  “I think it has a certain hollowness to it.” 

Even the U.S. government is on record saying they’re against settlements, Mr. Puryear added but said he is skeptical that actors like the U.S. and Europe will take serious action against Israel, based on their record.

He does not see a clear path for the international community to effectively pressure Israel to dismantle the occupation or end illegal settlements.

He believes the focus should be on continuing to shift global consciousness and public opinion against Israel’s actions. Worldwide, beginning in October 2023 with the current Israeli war, hundreds of thousands of people protested in condemnation of Israel’s atrocities.    

It is more realistic now more than ever before to talk about totally dismantling the State of Israel regardless of the intent of any individual actor, whether it is a human rights group, the ICJ, or a “hypocritical statement from a head of state,” said Mr. Puryear.

He reasons that the magnitude of what has been widely revealed in the genocide like the tens of thousands of deaths, injuries and displacements, has garnered unparalleled global support. Notwithstanding, was the wide exposure of genocidal statements from Israelis themselves in government and on the streets.

“They can see,” reasoned Mr. Puryear. “There probably is no way to have the two states side by side,” he stated, referring to the oft-repeated “two-state solution” idea. “This settler movement is too extreme,” he added.

For decades the Zionist State of Israel has enjoyed impunity for rights abuses, governing a colonial settler state, illegal land grabbing, and systematic repression of marginalized people.

Despite international condemnation and legal actions against wrongdoing, its perpetration of unabated evil continues.  For multiple generations of Palestinians, the horror story goes back decades with the influx of European Zionists relocating to historical Palestine.

Then came the policy of Nakba (catastrophe), ethnic cleansing through armed aggression, displacing 700,000 Palestinians into exile and refugee camps in neighboring countries.

Although numerous UN resolutions passed documenting Israel’s brazen disregard of international laws, just as brazen was the complicit posture of world powers like America, Britain, and others.

Despite international law and lip-service by America condemning illegal settlements, and overwhelming civilian carnage in Israel’s yearlong onslaught on Palestinians, Washington continues massive arms flow and military backing.

Adding to the warships and aircraft carriers and the thousands of U.S. troops in the region, approximately 100 more troops are deploying to Israel to operate a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery system being sent.

Non-stop bombardment in Gaza continues, and illegal settler aggression in the Occupied West Bank, and East Jerusalem, continues.

Tens of thousands of mostly innocent lives were taken, with more added by the day as Israel expands its war fronts into Lebanon and Syria. The conflict has brought mass displacements, a dire humanitarian crisis, and actions many have charged as genocide.

The Commission’s paper pushing for serious action on Israel’s illegal occupation coupled with the unprecedented ICJ opinion is redolent to forewarnings to America and Israel by the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and his National Representative, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam.

“The war in the Middle East will get very, very bloody,” said Minister Farrakhan, on February 25 of this year in his Saviours’ Day message titled, “What Does Allah The Great Mahdi and The Great Messiah Have To Say About The War In The Middle East?”

He warned that Israel and America will lose in the region and pay a price for their violations.

“What I gave is prophecy that you can find in the Bible and the Qur’an that Israel is not going to stay; America is not going to stay in the Middle East, and when that war triggers all of the countries that it will trigger, the war of Armageddon will be all over the earth,” said the Minister.

To view “What Does Allah The Great Mahdi and The Great Messiah Have To Say About The War In The Middle East?” in its entirety, visit media.noi.org.

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Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo announced the move to state media on October 11.

The Central American nation’s Congress had, earlier in the day, passed a resolution requesting Nicaragua take action to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Gaza war.

The conflict, the Nicaraguan government said, now also “extends against Lebanon and gravely threatens Syria, Yemen and Iran.”

Murillo, who is President Daniel Ortega’s wife, said her husband instructed the government to sever diplomatic relations with the “fascist” and “genocidal” Tel Aviv regime.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to intensified Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 42,150 Palestinians and injured another 98,117 individuals. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.

Nicaragua has twice before cut relations with Israel—once in 2010 under Ortega and also in 1982 under the Sandinista revolutionary government led by Ortega following the country’s 1979 revolution.

The rupture of diplomatic relations comes at a time when Israel is under growing isolation on the global stage amid a brutal campaign in Gaza and expanding attacks across West Asia, including in Lebanon.

Condemnation of Israel’s yearlong war on Gaza is relatively widespread in Latin America, where leaders in countries such as Brazil, Colombia and Chile have fiercely criticized the Tel Aviv regime’s brutalities in the Palestinian coastal sliver.

On Friday, the Palestinian mission to the United Nations announced that those three nations had helped spearhead a letter of support for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whom Israel declared persona non grata last week.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro cut diplomatic ties with Israel in May, calling the administration of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “genocidal.”

Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also recalled the country’s ambassador to the occupied territories that same month.

(Press.TV.ir)

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According to an Israeli foreign ministry cable obtained by Axios, Israel is applying pressure for South Africa to drop its “legal proceedings” in the ICJ over the war in Gaza. Why it matters?

“South Africa has until Oct. 28 to give the top UN court its arguments for continuing the case against Israel over alleged violations of the Genocide Convention during the war in Gaza,” wrote Barak Ravid in the Sept. 9 article, “Scoop: Israel asks Congress to press South Africa to drop ICJ genocide case,” on axios.com.

Israel has threatened South Africa will “pay a heavy price” if it doesn’t change its policy, reported the Middle East Eye on Sept. 9 in the article, “Israel lobbying US Congress to press South Africa to drop ICJ genocide case: Report.”

Thecradle.co reported that Israel hopes South Africa’s new coalition government “can be pressured to take a different approach to Israel and the war in Gaza.” South Africa responded that it will continue and file a “memorial” in October, the president’s office said in a statement.

“South Africa intends to provide facts and evidence to prove that Israel is committing the crime of genocide in Palestine,” the Sept. 10 statement read.

“This case will continue until the court makes a finding. While the case is in progress, we hope that Israel will abide by the court’s provisional orders issued to date,” added the office of the president’s statement, published in the Turkiye news outlet AA (Anatolia Agency).

The comments came amid reports that Israeli diplomats are being instructed to lobby members of the U.S. Congress to pressure the South African government into dropping the genocide case against Israel. South Africa said its genocide case represents a growing global effort towards ensuring peace in the Middle East.

According to South Africa’s Office of International Relations and Cooperation, “Several countries, namely Türkiye, Nicaragua, Palestine, Spain, Mexico, Libya and Colombia, have all joined the South African case against Israel.”

According to Axios, behind the scenes: “Israeli officials said the Israeli foreign ministry started a diplomatic campaign in recent weeks to press South Africa not to push forward with the case at the ICJ. The U.S. Congress is a main tool in the effort.”

Axios claims, “The Israeli foreign ministry sent a classified cable to the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., and to all Israeli consulates in the U.S. about South Africa’s ICJ case.

‘We are asking you to immediately work with lawmakers on the federal and state level, with governors and Jewish organizations to put pressure on South Africa to change its policy towards Israel and to make clear that continuing their current actions like supporting Hamas and pushing anti-Israeli moves in international courts will come with a heavy price,’ the cable read.”

This came behind Mr. Netanyahu’s appearance before the U.S. Congress, where he attempted to drum up continued support for his “genocidal war” in Gaza which to date has claimed 41,000 Palestinian lives. Now Israel is instructing its diplomats to request that members of Congress issue public statements condemning South Africa’s actions against Israel.

The statements reportedly would threaten the country with suspending U.S. trade relations with South Africa. “That’s unlikely to happen because the U.S. wants to maintain its relationship with South Africa in order to counter the influence of Russia and China,” explained Axios.

South Africa’s Office of International Relations and Cooperation states the case will remain active until the ICJ reaches a decision, reported newscentral.africa.

“The case, filed in late 2023, accuses Israel of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention through its ongoing bombardment of Gaza since October. In May, the ICJ ordered Israel to cease its military operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

This was the third instance of the Court’s 15-judge panel issuing preliminary orders aimed at curbing the death toll and mitigating the humanitarian crises in Gaza, where casualties have exceeded 40,000,” reported newscentral.africa.

Kelebogile Zvobgo is a Visiting Fellow for Foreign Policy at the Strobe Talbot Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology. In her Sept. 9 commentary published on brookings.edu she explained that for the ICC, “Judges can take months to issue warrants, but they almost always accept the prosecutor’s requests (at least those we know about—some requests are made under seal).” Warrants don’t always result in arrests, but they still matter, Zvobgo explained.

“They hold symbolic value, marking the accused as international pariahs and acknowledging victims’ suffering. Just the possibility of warrants makes it harder for allies to continue lending military and diplomatic aid. Foreign governments, like the UK, have in recent weeks withdrawn aid they think Israel could use to violate international law,” Zvobgo added.

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