Israeli settlements illegal – top UN court

West Jerusalem is carrying out a “de-facto annexation” of the West Bank, the International Court of Justice has ruled

Israel’s construction of settlements on Palestinian land violates the Geneva Convention and amounts to a policy of “de-facto annexation,” the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has declared. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the “false ruling,” insisting that the West Bank is Jewish land.

The court’s 15 justices agreed on Friday that “the transfer by Israel of settlers to the West Bank and Jerusalem as well as Israel’s maintenance of their presence, is contrary to article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention”.

Reading out the non-binding advisory opinion, ICJ President Nawaf Salam described Israel’s building of settlements in the West Bank as a “de-facto annexation” of the territory, and stated that the Jewish state should end its “unlawful” presence in occupied Palestinian territory as “rapidly as possible.”

The ICJ has been investigating Israel’s “policies and practices” toward the occupied Palestinian territories since early 2023, at the request of the UN General Assembly. At a series of hearings in February, the Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister, Riad Malki, accused Israel of apartheid and called on the court to declare the occupation of Palestinian land illegal. Israel did not send legal representatives to the hearings.

While Friday’s ruling will inform the UN’s stance on Israeli settlements, the ICJ lacks any means of enforcing the decision. 

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“The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land — not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, not in the land of our ancestors in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said in a statement shortly after the verdict was read out. “No false decision in The Hague will distort this historical truth, just as the legality of Israeli settlement in all the territories of our homeland cannot be contested,” he added.

Netanyahu’s hardline coalition partners have called for an even harsher response. Speaking to reporters last week, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that Netanyahu should formally annex the entire West Bank and East Jerusalem if the court were to rule against Israel. Smotrich also promised to step up the construction of settlements to “thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War. The West Bank is split into three areas, with less than a fifth of its territory under full control of the Palestinian Authority. Just over a fifth is under Israeli security control and Palestinian administrative control, while the remainder – comprising around 60% of the territory – is under full Israeli control.

It is in this latter area – designated ‘Area C’ under the 2000 Oslo Accords – where Israel has built most of its settlements. Under the agreements, Israel was never meant to maintain permanent control over this area. However, the Israeli government has signed off on the construction of nearly 150 settlements there since the early 2000s, and more than 450,000 settlers now live in the West Bank, according to data from Israeli anti-settlement activists.