Top U.N. court says Israel's occupation of West Bank, East Jerusalem is 'unlawful'

The top United Nations court in the Hague said Friday that Israel’s 57-year occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem is 'unlawful' and called on Israel to cease its presence in the occupied territories, including dismantling Israel settlements there and paying reparations.

The advisory decision by the International Court of Justice is non-binding and is unlikely to have much real impact on the ground in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where the U.N. estimates around 700,000 Israelis live.

But the decision was the first time the court had issued an opinion on the legality of Israel’s occupation, and will be another blow to Israel’s international standing.

"The State of Israel is under the obligation to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible," said ICJ President Nawaf Salam, who delivered the decision for the 15-member court. 

Israel Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the decision, condemning its reasoning as “lies.” Netanyahu said, “The Jewish people are not conquerors in their own land.”

The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the decision “historic” and demanded that “Israel be compelled to implement it," in a statement carried by the official Palestinians news agency Wafa.

The ICJ is also weighing charges brought by South Africa that Israel’s 10-month war against Hamas in Gazaamounts to genocide, an accusation that Israel denies. It launched its devastating campaign to destroy Hamas after the Palestinian militant group mounted a surprise attack against Israel, killing around 1,200 people according to Israel. The war in Gaza has killed more than 38,000 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Israel captured the West Bank – together with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip – in the 1967 war against its Arab neighbors. Since then, Israeli settlers – who call the area Judea and Samaria – have built communities in the region which the international community has long deemed illegal.

Settlements in the Gaza Strip were dismantled in 2005, when Israel withdrew from the southern coastal enclave. Two years later Hamas, an Islamist group, took control of the territory in a brief civil war with its secular rivals Fatah. Israel imposed restrictions on goods entering the area, a blockade that tightened even further during its military campaign after the October 7 attack by Hamas. 

The Palestinian Authority, which runs parts of the occupied West Bank, wants to build an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. The current Israeli administration rejects calls for an independent Palestinian state.

While war rages in Gaza, violence has also increased in the West Bank, where Israeli forces have carried out increasing raids on Palestinian militant groups, and where settlers have stepped up their own attacks on Palestinians.

The ICJ opinion delivered on Friday predates the current war in Gaza was drawn up after a request was made by the U.N. General Assembly before the current conflict on Gaza.