ICJ: Israel wants to dismantle system for international law adherence
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has heard that Israel looks set on dismantling the system of international law compliance which could have significant repercussions not restricted to the war in Palestine.
The statement was made at the beginning of a five-day hearing in The Hague, The Guardian reported on April 28th.
The UN’s highest court will formulate an advisory opinion on Israel’s humanitarian responsibilities to Palestinians in light of the over 50 day total block on aid coming into Gaza.
Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, the counsel for the Palestinian state, labelled Israel’s restrictions on “the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, [Israel’s] attacks on the United Nations and on UN officials, property and premises, its deliberate obstruction of the organisation’s work and its attempt to destroy an entire UN subsidiary organ” as “unprecedented in the history of the organisation”.
She said the actions were “a fundamental repudiation by Israel of its charter obligations owed both to the organisation and to all UN members and of the international rule of law.”
The UN undersecretary general for legal affairs, Elinor Hammarskjöld, passionately stated the immunities and privileges of the UN in a 30-minute opening submission to the court.
She told the court that Israel was not entitled to individually proclaim UN bodies as impartial and thereby cut off association or humanitarian assistance. She said: “When the basic elements of this [the charter’s] legal framework are not observed, the very nature of the work of the organisation on behalf of its member states is in jeopardy.”
Hammarskjöld established that if UN member states wanted to file complaints against the impartiality of an organisation like UNRWA, there were existing procedures for this to be handled. UN bodies had investigated claims made by Israel but the complete collaboration of member states, including the furnishing of documents was also needed, she explained.
Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said on April 28th that the ICJ hearing was a “systematic persecution and delegitimisation of Israel”.
“It is not Israel that should be on trial. It is the UN and Unrwa,” he added.
The Guardian
