The United Nations highest judicial body has given an opinion that Israel’s 1967 occupation of Palestinian territories is against international law. This a landmark opinion. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Israel should stop settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and end its illegal occupation of those areas and the Gaza Strip as soon as possible.

 Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967. The court said the settlements were illegal. The ICJ ruled that Israel’s “policies and practices amount to annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory”, which it said was against international law, adding that Israel was “not entitled to sovereignty” over any part of the occupied territories.

The ICJ found that virtually every Israeli action in the territory violated international law. The restrictions on the free movement of Palestinians. Their forced displacement and the demolitions of their homes. It concluded that Israel’s practices amount to annexation of large parts of the occupied territory, adding that they are designed to “create irreversible effects on the ground”. Israel’s presence was “unlawful” and it was obliged to end it as “rapidly as possible”.

The Palestinian Return Centre welcome this paradigm shift that has finally taken place under international law and the UN system. This landmark opinion gives further reasons to the international community to hold Israel accountable for the crime of settler colonial apartheid it is imposing on the Palestinian people. International governments and global civil society should redouble efforts to impose arms embargoes, economic boycotts, and other forms of political pressure on Israel until it ends its illegal occupation of Palestine.