ISLAMABAD: Pakistan joined more than 50 other nations on Friday to present its case in the landmark hearings held by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague to rule on Israel’s illegal possession of Palestinian territory.
The UN General Assembly (UNGA) requested the court’s opinion on the legal ramifications of the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine on December 30, 2022, after a majority of members voted in favor of doing so. This request set off the legal action. Israel, the US, Germany, and twenty-four other nations voted against the proposal, while Arab nations, Russia, and China supported it.
Although the decision would not be legally binding and would take many weeks to reach, many observers think that if the ICJ rules that the occupation is unlawful, Tel Aviv would undoubtedly come under pressure.
The hearings were scheduled to begin on February 19 and go through February 26. The 15-member ICJ has been hearing arguments from as many as 52 nations. Israel declined to present oral arguments, and the only nations to publicly back the Jewish state up to this point have been the US and the UK.
Pakistan’s Law Minister, Ahmed Irfan Aslam, spoke on behalf of the nation and restated its position. In the context of the ongoing hearing on the legal ramifications arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, Pakistan presented its oral statement before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague today, according to a statement released by the Foreign Office.
The Federal Minister for Law and Justice of Pakistan made the oral remark, stating that the Israeli occupation still significantly impedes the Palestinian people’s ability to exercise their right to self-determination.
Israel is attempting to establish permanent facts on the ground, maintain its unlawful occupation, and prevent access to Jerusalem’s holy sites through its illegal settlement strategy. Apartheid and systematic racial discrimination against the Palestinian people were the results of Israeli policies and behavior. The statement further stated that if the ICJ did not prevent Israel from making money “from its own continued grave wrongs,” it would not be able to carry out its judicial duties.
“The conclusion that Israel’s occupation is unlawful and unlawfulness must have consequences,” Aslam stated, has been reached by Pakistan.
Criticizing the Israeli settlement program, he claimed that by implementing this approach, Tel Aviv establishes permanent facts on the ground that make it challenging to terminate its protracted occupation.
“Its policies and practices of occupation deny the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and amount to systematic racial discrimination and serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights,” he stated, requesting that the UN High Court examine this matter seriously.
He claimed that Israel’s current policies violate international law and aim to kill and uproot Palestinians in order to seize territory.
The oral hearing is taking place while the Israeli occupation forces are brutally attacking the Palestinian people.
The FO stated, “Against this backdrop, the Government and people of Pakistan continue to express at all international forums, including at the ICJ, their unwavering solidarity with their Palestinian brothers and sisters.”
It went on to say that Pakistan had been advocating for a secure, viable, contiguous, sovereign State of Palestine based on the pre-June 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif serving as its capital, as well as an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and the provision of sufficient, ongoing, and unhindered humanitarian assistance to the besieged people of Gaza.
The top UN court is presently hearing oral arguments from states about South Africa’s lawsuit against Israel regarding its war in Palestine, where Tel Aviv’s attacks on the beleaguered enclave of Gaza have resulted in deaths that are quickly reaching 30,000 since October 7.
After a cross-border strike by the Palestinian organization Hamas on October 7 that claimed the lives of almost 1,200 Israelis, Israel has been pounding the Gaza Strip.
In addition to hurting almost 60,000 people, the UN reports that the Israeli war on Gaza has caused 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure to be damaged or destroyed and forced 85% of the territory’s inhabitants into internal displacement due to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medication.
The International Court of Justice has accused Israel of committing genocide. In January, an interim verdict mandated that Tel Aviv cease its acts of genocide and take steps to ensure that residents in Gaza get humanitarian aid.
But the violence hasn’t stopped, and there hasn’t been nearly enough relief to meet the humanitarian crisis.
