Thread by @Heidi__Matthews

Here we go: my thoughts on Day 1 of @CIJ_ICJ hearings in a new proceeding on Israel's actions in Gaza. The UN General Assembly has requested an advisory opinion on Israel's obligations regarding the UN, other orgs & third states in relation to the oPt (full question in photo).🧵

39 states will give oral submissions; another 6, including Israel, have provided written submissions only. Canada did *not* provide a written statement and will not be speaking (the US, UK, France did and will). The UN and 3 multilateral orgs will speaking.

For the full UNGA resolution requesting the opinion, see: un.org/unispal/wp-con…

Press release from @CIJ_ICJ on the opinion: icj-cij.org/sites/default/…

Hearing schedule: icj-cij.org/sites/default/…

Watch live all week: webtv.un.org/en

@CIJ_ICJ Up first: The United Nations, with Elinor Hammarskjöld (great niece of Dag H, former UN Secretary-General).

As an occupying power, the UN reminds us that Israel has the obligation, as an occupying power, to:
1. Administer the territory for the benefit of the local population;

2. Facilitate and agree to relief schemes;
3. Facilitate the proper working of all institutions dedicated to the education & care of children;
4. Maintain hospitals and medical services.

This includes allowing all UN agencies to do their work in these areas in the territory.

An important statement relating to self-determination:

"Israel is bound to respect the decision of the Palestinian population on the manner in which the dependence of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem on Israel for the provision of basic goods & services shall be reduced."

On relief we are reminded that the obligation, under international humanitarian law, of the occupying power to agree to and facilitate relief schemes is NOT limited to 'urgently needed' relief, and evolves over time in accordance with the needs of the occupied population.

Drawing on the July 2024 @CIJ_ICJ advisory opinion, the UN starts from the finding that Israel's continued presence in the Palestinian territory is unlawful. It says Knesset legislation from Oct 2024 on ceasing UNRWA operations constitutes an unlawful extension of sovereignty over the oPt.

As we watch the continued destruction of Gaza, many are feeling legitimately frustrated with the role of international law—and the @CIJ_ICJ in particular—in effectively addressing the violence & systematic illegality. We are right to be upset, for eg, with the recent 6 month extension granted to Israel to respond to South Africa's case: icj-cij.org/sites/default/…

I am also frustrated, and I certainly do not believe that international law is an unmitigated good or a necessary precondition to emancipation. What I do believe is that international law itself is facing an existential challenge in this moment of live-streamed genocide, and that international law and be a powerful tool when it aligns with power.

So for example: the genocide frame is a particularly powerful one *because* it is a legal frame. I don't think we want to lose that in the struggle for Palestinian liberation. The current proceedings will be useful in part because they will clarify the legal obligations of *all* states with respect to the UN's work, including in Palestine.

The UN notes that its agencies, particularly UNRWA, have faced extremely challenging limitations to their work in occupied Palestine since January 2025, in light of Israel's domestic legislation targeting UNRWA. It reminds states that they have an absolute obligation to respect the inviolability of UN property and personnel, including during war. The UN simply cannot do its work otherwise.

@CIJ_ICJ The UN reminds us that Israel has killed nearly 300 United Nations personnel in Gaza since Oct 7, 2023, and that it continues to besiege Gaza by preventing all entry of humanitarian aid and assistance. UN agencies cannot operate according their mandates in these circumstances.

@CIJ_ICJ Up next: Palestine 🇵🇸

The Palestinian ambassador tells the Court that Israel's war on Gaza is targeting life itself. Starvation has already killed 59 children. Gaza has been turned into a killing field, caught in "an endless death loop."

@CIJ_ICJ Palestine submits that the ultimate goal of Israel, in frustrating the UN's work in the oPt and preventing aid delivery to Gaza, is 'the permanent annexation of Palestinian territory and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.' Israel uses a 'security sham' to justify its genocide.

@CIJ_ICJ 'This legal and moral crisis is not 18 months old. Israel has been systematically dispossessing, uprooting, slaughtering and imprisoning Palestinians in absolute flagrant disregard for international law and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people for 80 years now.'

@CIJ_ICJ 🇵🇸: 'Israel has been waging a campaign of erasure intended to destroy the Palestinian people. This was a central hallmark of the Nakba, the darkest chapter of which is unfolding before our eyes.'

@CIJ_ICJ Palestine reminds the Court—and the world—that Gaza has the largest population of child amputees, whose limbs are often removed without painkillers. Palestine projects this image of baby Shams, who died from her injuries 18 days ago.

@CIJ_ICJ Palestine explains that Israel's grave war crimes—including the intentional killing of 15 aid workers last month and the cover up that ensued—'aim to hasten the forcible destruction and transfer of the Palestinian population out of Gaza.'

'All UN-supported bakeries in Gaza are closed. 9/10 in Gaza have no access to safe water. >12,500 wounded Palestinians need evacuation to survive. Israel is denying entry of vaccines. Palestinians are squeezed into 1/3 of the Strip, which is being bombed. All 36 hospitals have been bombed.'

@CIJ_ICJ This advisory opinion, Palestine argues, is not just about ending the siege. It is about 'Israel unravelling fundamental principles of international law, turning Palestine into a mass grave for Palestinians and those coming to their aid.'

@CIJ_ICJ Up next: Paul Reichler for Palestine

Reichler begins by quoting Smotrich and @Israel_katz, both of whom have made crystal clear that the goal Israel's total siege—now in its second month—is to directly target Gaza's civilian population for destruction and starvation.

Reichler tells the Court that as part of the siege, Israeli energy minister Eli Cohen boasted about cutting off electricity, which had the effect of depriving 600,000 Palestinians in Gaza of access to safe water. The facts in question are not disputed; they are 'proudly & loudly proclaimed by Israel's most senior officials.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz The law is also crystal clear, and comes from the UN Security Council, General Assembly & the ICJ itself: Israel must immediately provide safe & unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale to Gaza. Instead, Israel has flouted the Court's orders & impeded aid delivery.

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz Reichler quotes in full this chilling passage from @antonioguterres: "The current path is a dead end—totally intolerable in the eyes of international law and history." And yet... states in the west, including 🇨🇦, continue to do nothing to pressure Israel to end the devastation.

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres By preventing humanitarian assistance from entering Gaza, Israel is infringing the Palestinian people's right to self-determination. The intention behind Israel's policies in Gaza & the West Bank is to 'displace & disperse the Palestinian people, which threatens its integrity.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres Reichler notes that 'the vast majority of states and organizations participating in these proceedings agree that in impeding humanitarian aid, Israel has violated its duty not to impede the Palestinian people from exercising its right to self-determination.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres Reichler: 'Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare has been recognized as a war crime at least since the judgment at Nuremberg in 1946. Eight decades later, it is Israel that is deliberately starving >2m Palestinian civilians in Gaza to achieve its purported war ends.'

Very important on the link between deprivation of humanitarian aid & genocidal intent from Reichler: "The inhumanity of the Israeli policy of starvation is compounded by its unlawful objective: to forever extinguish the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including a sovereign & independent state in their own territory as part of the two state solution that the international community demands. Killing & maiming hundreds of thousands and starving & attempting to displace millions out of Palestine amounts to no less than attempting to destroy Palestinians as a group."

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres Up next: Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh for 🇵🇸

The UN Secretary-General has decided to reduce the UN footprint in Gaza, reminiscent of previous genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia: 'The United Nations itself cannot keep its staff safe in Gaza because no one anywhere is safe.'

'Israel no longer maintains the pretense of humanitarian safe zones in Gaza. Al Mawasi has been repeatedly bombed & a ground invasion is now reportedly imminent. Israel is seeking to destroy Palestinians as a group, including by seizing more territory & turning Gaza into a wasteland incapable of sustaining human life.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres Ní Ghrálaigh tells the Court that in advance of the recent incident involving the killing of 15 aid workers, including a UN employee, Israeli soldiers were given orders to the effect that anyone they encountered was to be treated as a target.

Important from Ní Ghrálaigh on the question of genocide: 'Israel's acts are not just murderous & inhumane: they are genocidal. While genocide is the subject of other proceedings before this Court, the risk to the right of Palestinians to be protected from acts of genocide is at issue in these proceedings because the Court is being asked to advise on Israel's obligations in relation to the provision of aid to Gaza in the context of a binding determination of this Court that there exists a real and imminent risk that Palestinians will be subjected to genocide.'

Recall that Ní Ghrálaigh acted for South Africa in its genocide case against Israel. In her submissions today for Palestine she has essentially put South Africa's case back before the Court in the context of an advisory opinion. We won't see a determination of genocide or new provisional orders in this proceeding, but we may well get an early indication from the Court of where it stands on the question of genocide.

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres Ní Ghrálaigh: 'Israel's deliberate destruction of the UN's work is unprecedented in the history of the organization. Israel has fundamentally repudiated its obligations under the Charter, owed to the organization and all UN member states and the international rule of law.'

Ní Ghrálaigh: 'Israel's actions are antithetical to the actions of a peace loving state. Israel's very submissions to this Court violate its obligations to cooperate with the UN in good faith, advancing allegations against the organization without providing evidence. But for Israeli officials, damage to the United Nations appears to be the point. Israel has declared the Secretary-General himself persona non grata, accusing him of being antisemitic.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres 'In addition to seeking to destroy the protective application of int'l law to the Palestinian people, Israel appears set on destroying the very int'l framework created to ensure compliance with int'l law and accountability for its breach with consequences far beyond Palestine.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres Ní Ghrálaigh for Palestine, on the relevance of @CIJ_ICJ to law and politics today: 'The international community is acting to uphold the basic principles of international law by seeking the Court's advice in these proceedings.'

Up next, the great @ArdiImseis of @queensulaw for 🇵🇸:

'UNRWA's mandate is an essential part of the UN's permanent responsibility for the question of Palestine, which originates from the unsuccessful attempt to partition Palestine without the consent of the Palestinian people and the ensuing Nakba.'

Imseis (author of "The United Nations and the Question of Palestine: Rule by Law and the Structure of International Legal Subalternity"):

'It is because of Israel's prolonged attack on Palestinian rights that the need for UNRWA today is stronger than it was in 1949.'

cambridge.org/core/books/uni…

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw .@ArdiImseis for 🇵🇸: 'The writing is on the wall. With these brazen suggestions that the departure of Palestinians would be "voluntary", Israel is not merely insulting the world's intelligence; it is simply assuming that the world has none.'

.@ArdiImseis: 'After killing or injuring close to 170,000 Palestinians, after turning Gaza into a moonscape of dust & rubble, with >70,000 tonnes of bombs amounting to more than what was dropped on Dresden, Hamburg & London combined during WWII, after destroyed or damaging >92% of civilian housing, 88% of schools, 84% of health facilities, 95% of water & sanitation systems & 92% of roads, the Orwellian language used by @Israel_katz must be seen for what it is: an open call to expel as many surviving Palestinians as possible. The point is this: elimination of UNRWA is essential to Israel's dreaded plans.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw Imseis: 'UNRWA has an unmatched capacity to deliver aid schemes at scale in Gaza, meaning that Israel has an obligation to facilitate UNRWA's work, including its expansion, rather than attack it.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw Up next for 🇵🇸: Alain Pellet

'Israel's inhuman & monstrous behaviour toward the Palestinian population in Gaza leaves no doubt. By withholding & obstructing aid Israel has violated a very large number of peremptory (jus cogens) norms of international law.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw 'Israel must first put an end to bombardments, incursions and the blockade imposed on Gaza and within the refugee camps in the West Bank. It must withdraw its occupation forces. It must cease its relentless displacement of Palestinian civilians, particularly in Gaza.'

'Israel must also positively fulfill its obligations as an occupying power. Israel must facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid & guarantee the privileges & immunities of UN property and personnel. It must fulfill its obligation to take immediate & effective measures to address the adverse living conditions of Palestinians in the Strip, per the Genocide Convention and the Court's orders.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw 'Restitution is impossible with regard to much of the harm Israel has caused, including the deaths of thousands of children. Yet Israel is still bound to repair this damage, including by rebuilding infrastructure and compensating victims. Appropriate satisfaction is due.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw 'Reparations are owed to the United Nations, in particular UNRWA and other organizations. Israel's breaches have infringed the rights of many states, including by preventing them from supplying the essential humanitarian aid needed by Palestinians.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw Pellet remarks, interestingly, how law students are asking their professors of in'tl law what use the law has in the face of Israel's violations. This hits. Michael Lynk & I faced this question each week this winter in our @OsgoodeNews "Israel/Palestine & Int'l Law" course.

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw @OsgoodeNews Up next and last for 🇵🇸: Permanent Observer Riyad Mansour

'Israel is seeking to end Palestinians' presence in the land as a nation. Netanyahu has unequivocally said he will not allow Palestinians to exercise their right to self-determination, much less to form a state.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw @OsgoodeNews 'It is no coincidence that Israel has destroyed development projects in East Jerusalem and Area C because these areas constitute priority areas for Israel's annexation efforts. Israel kills emergency workers to deprive the population of any means to survive the devastation.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw @OsgoodeNews 'Netanyahu now calls for the "voluntary migration" of survivors. Is migration voluntary when people are trapped between death and displacement? Pope Francis, RIP, said that "this is not war, this is cruelty"'.

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw @OsgoodeNews 'Palestinians are starving while food rots at the border. They are dying of wounds that could be healed. They are succumbing to diseases that could be prevented.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw @OsgoodeNews 'Palestinians only need assistance in the first place because Israel systematically created our dependence on aid, to which it now denies us access. Israel steals our resources and revenues, restricts our movement and fragments our territory.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw @OsgoodeNews 'UNRWA is a shining example of the success of multilateralism at the UN, catering selflessly to the needs of > 6 million refugees. It is an organization that should be protected and defended, not attacked.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw @OsgoodeNews 'There is an alternative vision where the law is upheld, where no civilian is harmed, whether Palestinian or Israeli. Where there are no prisoners & no hostages. No occupation & no wars. Where families are reunited in life, rather than death. Where our people are finally free.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw @OsgoodeNews 'We are all the children of God, and God does not discriminate among his children or against his children.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw @OsgoodeNews Up next: Egypt 🇪🇬

'Israel's brutal siege is the most recent chapter in Israel's systematic weaponization of humanitarian aid. There is no doubt that Israel's practices are part of a state policy to effect the de facto annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw @OsgoodeNews 'Israel is intentionally creating conditions intended to make Gaza uninhabitable. The recent creation of an agency to manage the "voluntary" deportation of Palestinians from Gaza is further evidence of an Israeli policy to de-Palestinianize the occupied Palestinian territory.'

@CIJ_ICJ @Israel_katz @antonioguterres @ArdiImseis @queensulaw @OsgoodeNews 'Israel's policies are aimed at undermining and disbanding UNRWA altogether, obstructing its humanitarian mandate and the right of return and driving Palestinian displacement and dispossession in violation of the right of self-determination.'