Live
By Nils Adler
Published On 19 Feb 2024

This live page is now closed. You can follow our live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

19 Feb 2024 - 14:00
 (14:00 GMT)

Thank you for joining us

And that’s a wrap from us.

Remember, we still have to hear from more than 50 countries on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. You can read our explainer on the case here.

And go here to keep up to date with all the latest developments on the war.

19 Feb 2024 - 13:50
 (13:50 GMT)

A recap of today’s developments

We will be closing this live page soon, so let’s bring you up to date on the key developments:

  • Palestinian representatives at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) presented their arguments on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
  • They argued that the existence and exercise of the Palestinian right to self-determination is not and can never be a matter of negotiation.
  • Paul Reichler, a legal representative, said the fundamental objective of the occupation is the “permanent acquisition of the maximum amount of Palestinian territory with the minimum number of Palestinians in it”.
  • The Palestinian representatives also asked the ICJ to declare that Israel’s discriminatory practices against the Palestinian people are tantamount to apartheid.
  • They also stated that the Israeli occupation was illegal and must be brought to an immediate, unconditional and total end.
  • A visibly emotional Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s envoy to the United Nations, concluded the arguments by telling the ICJ that a ruling which deemed Israeli occupation illegal and “the legal consequences from this determination” would pave the way “to just and lasting peace”.
  • Proceedings continue tomorrow at 09:00 GMT, with representatives from South Africa, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Bangladesh and Belgium presenting their arguments.
19 Feb 2024 - 13:40
 (13:40 GMT)
Analysis

ICJ proceedings ‘must lead to some sort of geopolitical change’

By Marwan Bishara

Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst

We’ve heard that there must be accountability in order to achieve justice and peace, and that can never be achieved without the type of accountability that we began to witness today at the ICJ.

However, the cynicism of our international system lies in the notion that it boasts of international law, but at the same time, the application of that same international law is constantly blocked by the nature of geopolitics.

Therefore, when there is a nation that is not exactly losing a war and is supported by a powerful bloc comprised of the United States and Europe, then the possibility for accountability becomes almost impossible.

All of these proceedings that we’ve heard today must lead to some sort of a geopolitical change, and I believe that that change will not come necessarily from the UN Security Council because the United States and the UK will probably veto such proposals.

But it will certainly come from the court of public opinion and local courts from various countries around the world.

19 Feb 2024 - 13:35
 (13:35 GMT)

WATCH: ‘Palestine was not a land without a people’

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki kicked off the proceedings. Watch part of his statement below:

19 Feb 2024 - 13:30
 (13:30 GMT)

Palestinians ‘have no intention of leaving’

By Nida Ibrahim

Reporting from Bethlehem, occupied West Bank

An advisory opinion by the ICJ in 2004 deemed Israel’s separation wall in the occupied West Bank illegal.

But Israel did not abide by that, and since then, we’ve seen the wall being built across most areas of the occupied West Bank

With it, we are also seeing other manifestations of the occupation: surveillance cameras, military towers, gates and checkpoints.

Palestinians are under military occupation. This means not only land dispossessed, not only theft of homes, demolitions and raids but also the fact that every little detail of their lives is controlled and centred around the actions of the Israeli military occupation.

Palestinians say all of these Israeli measures are intended to make life so miserable for them so that they would go and find somewhere else to live.

But the Palestinians we’ve been speaking to say that this is their land, this is their country, this is where they’ve been born and have been staying for decades. They have no intention of leaving.

19 Feb 2024 - 13:10
 (13:10 GMT)

WATCH: ‘Ruling could change world for Palestinians’

Paul Reichler argued earlier that the UN’s top court cannot remain silent and its words could ‘change the world’.

Watch part of his speech below:

19 Feb 2024 - 13:05
 (13:05 GMT)
Analysis

Palestinian arguments were clear, comprehensive and convincing

By Marwan Bishara

Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst

The Palestinians and their legal team have presented their case today in a very similar way to that one presented by South Africa last month about the question of Gaza and genocide.

But here, on the question of the occupation, I think Riyad Mansour’s closing arguments were clear, comprehensive and convincing.

As a student of this issue, I am familiar with most of the arguments presented here. But to hear them coming together the way they were presented, in such a coherent way over the past three hours of argumentation, the conclusion one can draw more than anything else is the fact that this illegal occupation is the source of violence and violations of individual and collective Palestinian human rights.

What the Palestinian legal team showed us today is that this occupation is the one that’s paving the way and allowing the deepening of illegal colonisation. It’s also allowing deepening racism and it’s also perpetuating the confiscation and illegal grabbing of land and the erection of the apartheid system.

19 Feb 2024 - 13:00
 (13:00 GMT)

WATCH: Israel ‘systematically denies’ Palestinians’ right to life, ICJ hears

Namira Negm told the ICJ that Israel uses a “toolbox of population control and inhumane acts” that restrict “every aspect of Palestinians’ life from birth to death”.

Watch a part of her statement below:

19 Feb 2024 - 12:47
 (12:47 GMT)

A recap of what happened today

By Bernard Smith

Reporting from The Hague

It was impossible, really, not to be moved listening to Riyad Mansour concluding the Palestinian arguments.

And we saw Mansour himself moved to tears and breaking up as he described how international law has not protected Palestinian children in Gaza or the occupied West Bank.

Before he spoke, there were about three hours of clearly reasoned legal arguments from legal experts appointed by the Palestinian Authority explaining why they believe the court should deliver an opinion that Israel’s 56-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is illegal.

Among those arguments, we heard how Israel is deliberately settling occupied land – there are now 700,000 Israeli settlers living in the occupied West Bank – and how that demographic manipulation is a breach of international law.

We heard how Palestinians are treated differently by the law compared with Israelis and how that is effectively apartheid and we heard how Israel is making no secret of its slow and steady annexation of the West Bank and how it prevents Palestinians from returning to the land that was seized during the Nakba.

Highly respected legal expert Paul Reichler, who represented the Palestinians, also said that a permanent occupation is a “legal oxymoron”, adding that the best and possibly last hope for a two-state solution is for the court to declare that the ongoing occupation is illegal.

19 Feb 2024 - 12:38
 (12:38 GMT)

And that’s it from the representatives of Palestine

Mansour’s – at times, emotional – closing statement has brought today’s proceedings to an end.

The court will meet again tomorrow at 09:00 GMT to hear from South Africa, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Netherlands, Bangladesh and Belgium.

But stay with us as we continue our live coverage with analyses of and reactions to all of today’s developments.

19 Feb 2024 - 12:34
 (12:34 GMT)

‘The future of freedom, justice and peace can begin here and now’: Mansour

A visibly emotional Mansour is now wrapping up his speech:

“A finding from this distinguished court that the occupation is illegal and drawing the legal consequences from this determination would contribute to bringing it to an immediate end, paving the way to just and lasting peace.

“The state of Palestine appeals to this court to guide the international community in upholding international law.

“Ending injustice and achieving a just and lasting peace to guide us towards a future in which Palestinian children are treated as children, … in which the identity of the group to which we belong does not diminish the human rights to which we are all entitled, a future in which no Palestinian and no Israeli is killed, a future in which two states live side by side in peace and security.

“Palestinian people only demand respect for their rights. They ask for nothing more.

“The future of freedom, justice and peace can begin here and now.”

19 Feb 2024 - 12:30
 (12:30 GMT)

More from Mansour

  • In 1980, the Security Council reaffirmed the overriding necessity to end the prolonged occupation of Arab territories occupied by Israel in 1967, including Jerusalem.
  • If the occupation was deemed prolonged in 1980, how should it be characterised today nearly 45 years later?
19 Feb 2024 - 12:27
 (12:27 GMT)

‘Occupation must come to an immediate, complete and unconditional end’

More from Mansour:

  • So here we are, though the law is absolutely clear, it is being trumped.
  • Without accountability, there is no justice; and without justice, there can be no peace.
  • Israel must be made to bear the consequences of its illegal conduct rather than reap the benefits.
  • After 75 years, justice can no longer wait for the day Israel has an epiphany and suddenly decides to reverse course and commit to the law and UN resolutions.
  • Our journey in the search for justice has brought us before you, before the International Court of Justice.
  • We call on you to confirm that the Israeli presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is illegal and that its occupation must come to an immediate, complete and unconditional end.
  • This occupation has served as cover for Israel’s colonial designs, the acquisition of Palestinian territory by force.
19 Feb 2024 - 12:21
 (12:21 GMT)

The envoy continues

  • It is so painful to be Palestinian today.
  • How could we be just subjected to such loss and injustice, such lawlessness and humiliation time and time again?
  • What does international law mean for a nation bestowed with inherent rights but enjoying none?
  • It took 75 years for the UN to commemorate the Nakba, our violent dispossession, displacement from our land, and denial of our rights and existence. And we are seeing it happening all over again.
  • Massacres, millions forcibly driven towards the unknown, tents, starvation, deprivation and dehumanisation enabling one people to impose all of this on another.
  • Palestinians under occupation in Israel, as refugees, and in the diaspora, all they ask for is their rights and to live in freedom and dignity in their ancestral land.
19 Feb 2024 - 12:20
 (12:20 GMT)

Israeli leaders defy the law, and the law is barely fighting back: Mansour

Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s UN envoy, is now making the closing statements:

  • More than two million Palestinians in Gaza are being pushed all the way to the border, to the very brink.
  • Palestinian children, women and men are consumed by disease, despair, destruction and death, which are spreading like wildfire.
  • In the rest of occupied Palestine, settlers rampage and terrorise – no village, town or city, no community, no sanctity spared.
  • Israeli leaders speak openly of getting rid of the Palestinian people, one way or another. They defy the law, and the law is barely fighting back.
  • For Palestine, the law continues to be only a measure of the severity of breaches rather than a catalyst for action and accountability.
  • What does international law mean for Palestinian children in Gaza today? It has not protected their families or communities. It has not protected their lives or limbs or hopes or homes.
19 Feb 2024 - 12:11
 (12:11 GMT)

Pellet says court can help put end to ‘terrible injustice’

Pellet concludes by telling the judges that no case that they’ve had before them has raised so many serious questions as those they are called to rule today.

He says the number of participants in the proceedings demonstrates the importance of the stakes in play.

He notes that Palestine detailed in its written observations the consequences of numerous serious violations of international law committed by Israel.

“All these violations have been brought about by the prolonged occupation of Palestine, which is surely the mother of all its violations. Your opinion, distinguished members of the court, will be a very precious guide for Palestine.”

He finally says the court can make an appreciable contribution to putting an end “to this terrible injustice and work for a just and lasting peace allowing each state in the region to live in security”.

19 Feb 2024 - 12:08
 (12:08 GMT)

Pellet continues

He calls for the UN and third parties to guarantee a number of points:

  • No military or technological assistance which could be used in the occupied Palestinian territories to perpetuate or reinforce its occupation and the regime of racial discrimination and apartheid instituted by Israel.
  • Aid and assist Palestinian people, including refugees who have fled recent Israeli atrocities (including UNRWA).
  • Refrain from any form of economic relations or other relations with Israel involving the population or the natural resources of the occupied Palestinian territories without the express agreement of a legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
19 Feb 2024 - 12:04
 (12:04 GMT)
Infographic

19 Feb 2024 - 11:57
 (11:57 GMT)

More from Pellet

He now addresses the subject of compensation and reparations Palestine is entitled to receive from Israel.

Pellet adds that the Security Council and the General Assembly have already made “specific legally binding findings in this respect”.

19 Feb 2024 - 11:49
 (11:49 GMT)

‘Israel under obligation to end occupation’

More from Pellet:

  • Israel cannot rely on any circumstance to escape its responsibility on the grounds of some consent purportedly given by the State of Palestine, or by invoking self-defence or necessity.
  • No more may Israel justify countermeasures as a response to an internationally wrongful act that it might impute to Palestine.
  • There is no way that such negotiations or the perspective of such negotiations could serve as pretexts to exonerate Israel from its responsibilities.