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  • Open Call to States and Agencies Participating in the Proceedings of the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Humanitarian Aid to Palestinians
Open Call to States and Agencies Participating in the Proceedings of the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Humanitarian Aid to Palestinians
Open Call to States and Agencies Participating in the Proceedings of the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Humanitarian Aid to Palestinians

BADIL Resource Center welcomes Norway’s initiative to request an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as per UNGA Resolution A/RES/79/23, on “Israel’s obligations as a UN Member State and Occupying Power.” However, the Palestinian people’s fundamental and inalienable rights are enshrined in multiple frameworks of international law and have been recognized and reaffirmed by countless UN resolutions. The obligations of “Israel” to provide aid, assistance and ensure their well-being are also clearly defined under public international law and international humanitarian law, as well as international customary, refugee and criminal law. 

 

What is important for the participating parties in this Advisory Opinion, is not only to reaffirm what is already known to be the Israeli regime’s obligations, but to recognize that, since its inception, “Israel” has been unwilling to fulfill its obligations. This not only includes the Israeli regime’s unwillingness to fulfil its obligations to provide humanitarian aid and protect and respect the UN and its agencies, but also its unwillingness to adhere to its obligations to ensure the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights to self-determination and return. Because of Israel’s ongoing and staunch unwillingness to fulfil its obligations, the obligation of the international community and third states is activated: to provide international protection to Palestinians, and in particular Palestinian refugees which constitute 42 percent of the population in the occupied Palestinian territory.

 

To be effective, this Advisory Opinion must go beyond reminders and calls for compliance, which the international community has been doing for decades with no change in Israeli adherence to international law or its obligations. Rather, the lack of accountability has resulted in the imposition of a colonial-apartheid regime over the Palestinian people as a whole for over 76 years and over 15 months of ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. Without real and practical measures to force compliance, violations and crimes will continue to be inflicted on the Palestinian people.  

 

As such, States’ and agencies’ submissions to the ICJ on this Advisory Opinion must include requests that the Court provide measures clearly articulating how to bring about the Israeli regime’s compliance. The question that needs to be posed to the ICJ and answered is: What measures need to be taken when – not if – Israel refuses once again to abide by its obligations?

 

Submissions must call on the Court to articulate specific actions for states, international organizations and the UN including but not limited to:

  • Revoke UN membership and privileges (application of Article 6 of the UN Charter) to pressure the Israeli regime to rescind its laws, policies and measures banning, obstructing and replacing UNRWA and reinstate its full privileges. 
  • Practical measures such as diplomatic, economic and military sanctions.
  • Protect and support the UN:  expand financial, technical and operational support and reject all attempts to criminalize or defund the UN and its specialized agencies, especially UNRWA.
  • Demand reparations, compensation and guarantees of non-repetition caused by the internationally wrongful acts committed for damage, loss or injury to all natural and legal persons concerned, including the destruction of international property and damage to UN infrastructure and the killing of hundreds of UN staff.
  • Prosecuting grave breaches in states’ domestic courts under the principle of universal jurisdiction, including forced displacement and transfer and colonization.

 

International protection, including humanitarian aid for those who are entitled to it, must not be contingent on the will of any state, especially if that state is the perpetrator of international crimes such as ongoing forced displacement and transfer, colonization and apartheid, as well as genocide.  

 

Therefore, third parties are also obligated to: reject any project and/or attempt to forcibly transfer Palestinians; expose and reject the instrumentalization of aid as a tool to force the capitulation of states; advance the realization of the inalienable rights to self-determination and return of the Palestinian people through a rights-based decolonization approach.

 

The time has come to move beyond reminders and calls. The Israeli regime’s unwillingness to fulfill its obligations and provide protection means that it is time to truly and practically activate the obligations of the international community and third states.