Was asked a simple and direct question today: What does #Israel intend for occupied #Palestnian territory, if it had its way? While answering may not be all that simple, we can - and should - infer from what Israel says, even if it is in a top-secret classified cable. So here:
On 20 July 1967, the #Israeli Interminsteral Committee on Occupied Territory - chaired by Major-General Chaim Herzog (later President of Israel and father of current President @Isaac_Herzog) wrote to the Prime Minister with 10 recommendations.
1. No bilateral negotiations, or resolution, with the Arabs of the #WestBank and #Gaza. 4. Cultivate sympathetic Arab leadership to espouse Israeli policy in the Arab world. 5. Quitely and diligently deport #Palestinains from occupied territory.
6. Forcibly transfer Palestinians from #Gaza to the #WestBank [eventually annex it, devoid of people]. 7. In due course, permanently resettle Palestinian citizens of #Israel in the West Bank. 10. Increase the economic dependence of the West Bank and #Palestine refugees on Israel.
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Given its widespread and systematic disregard for international legal norms in its control and exploitation of #Palestinian territory, #Israel cannot be considered a "lawful occupant," but instead the @CIJ_ICJ should find its prolonged occupation to be in serious breach of peremptory norms of international law.
An @CIJ_ICJ determination later this afternoon that #Israel has become an illegal occupant - whose actions deny #Palestinian self-determination and result in exacerbated humanitarian needs - would elevate the duty of the international community to end the occupation. Such a determination by the #ICJ would re-establish the framework of international law as the guiding path to a just and
durable resolution to the question of #Palestine.
The @CIJ_ICJ finds that it has material jurisdiction over the questions addressed to it, and that the questions are justiciable. It rejects opposing views that it would be improper for it to opine on this matter considered by the Security Council.
Considering t the attack in Al Mawasi #Gaza earlier today - which has led to multiple civilian fatalities - I remembered hearing #Israel's Head of International Law at the Military Advocate General’s Corps during a 2017 @IIHL_Sanremo conference.
He said at the time that military commanders, when considering Art. 57 of AP I ("constant care shall be taken to spare the civilian population, civilians and civilian objects") should not give it precedence over military gains.
He went on to argue that precautions in attack, including the use of precision munitions that would limit adverse impact to civilians - in this instance internally displaced in Gaza due to Israel's wanton actions - is subject to the "economizing" of weapons.
Today, #Israel is to report to the @CIJ_ICJ on the implementation of the order of provisional measures (24 May), including:
* Immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the #Rafah Governorate
* Maintain open the Rafah crossing for unhindered provision at scale of urgently needed basic
services and humanitarian assistance
* Ensure unimpeded access to the #Gaza Strip of any commission of inquiry or other investigative body mandated by competent organs of the @UN @UN_HRC
* Since 24 May, 1,631 Palestinians were killed, and 6,453 were injured in Gaza, many of them in and around Rafah
* The Rafah crossing was destroyed by Israeli forces and remains inoperable
* Israel rejected the recent report by the HRC Commission of Inquiry and remains noncooperative
Israel brought the humanitarian operation to a near standstill, @eu_eeas High Representative @JosepBorrellF and @eu_echo Commissioner @JanezLenarcic issued a warning that "due to the ongoing military operations and the collapse of law and order in Gaza, our partners are forced to operate in an unacceptably unsafe environment [...] Operations are at risk of breaking down if no action is taken. eeas.europa.eu/eeas/gaza-stat…
BREAKING: @CIJ_ICJ decides by a vote 13-2 that #Israel shall immediately halt its military offensive in #Rafah.
The Order issued by the Court is without appeal, and according to Article 94 of the UN Charter, "Each Member of the United Nations undertakes to comply with the decision of the International Court of Justice in any case to which it is a party".
If any party to a case fails to perform the obligations incumbent upon it under a judgment rendered by the Court, "the other party may have recourse to the Security Council #UNSC, which may, if it deems necessary, decide upon measures to be taken to give effect to the judgment".
While international attention is given to atrocity crimes committed by #Israel in #Gaza, its Parliament preceded - in a preliminary vote - with committing the crime of aggression - annexing the southern parts of the West Bank along with its numerous settlements.
The draft bill redefines the geography of the Negev Desert (in red) to include the metropolitan territory of #Israel and the "area", a synonym for occupied #Palestinian territory. The ancillary note explains the "desire for equality and non discrimination" between Israelis.
The backstory to Israel's 'annexation via policy measures', accelerated since 7 October under the fog of war:
The journey to #Palestinian political independence and #statehood, a few milestones worth recalling in view of the decision of #Norway, #Ireland, and #Spain (and other WEOG states soon to follow):
1. In 1974, the UN General Assembly decided that the Palestinian people are the principal party to the question of political independence and permanent sovereignty of #Palestine, invested with a right to external self-determination and represented by the Palestine Liberation Organization #PLO.
2. By 1988, the General Assembly, recalling Res. 181, calling for the establishment of an Arab and Jewish States, affirmed the State of # Palestine right to exercise sovereignty in the territory occupied since 1967. The right to self-determination was matched with a territory - creating a 'self-determination unit.'