'The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land' - Israel blasts ICJ ruling declaring Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria illegal

Israeli leaders denounced the ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Friday, which declared Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria (internationally known as the West Bank) illegal.

“Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law,” stated ICJ President Nawaf Salam on Friday.

The ICJ’s 15-judge panel issued an advisory opinion on the issue of settlements, which are not binding but “carry great legal weight and moral authority. They are often an instrument of preventive diplomacy and have peace-keeping virtues.”

The judges stated that Israel’s presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem should come to an end “as rapidly as possible.”

Israel is “obliged to bring an end to its presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible,” the court said. The court added that Israel must make reparations for “damages” caused by its “occupation” of what the ICJ considers Palestinian territories.

Julia Sebutinde, the court’s Ugandan vice president, was the only one to dissent on all of the counts, which passed either with a vote of 14-1, 14-3, 12-3 or 11-4.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the ICJ's ruling as "absurd."

“The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land, including in our eternal capital Jerusalem nor in Judea and Samaria, our historical homeland,” Netanyahu said. “No absurd opinion in The Hague can deny this historical truth or the legal right of Israelis to live in their own communities in our ancestral home.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz echoed Netanyahu’s remarks, describing the decision as “fundamentally warped, one-sided, and wrong.”

“The opinion ignores the past: the historical rights of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel,” Katz said. “It is detached from the present: from the reality on the ground; from the security threats to Israel; from the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust; from the attacks by Hamas, Iran, and other terrorist elements on seven fronts; and from the need for Israel to defend its territory and its citizens. It is also dangerous to the future: it plays into the hands of the extremists and it encourages the Palestinian Authority to continue on the path of defamation and baseless mud-slinging. 

“The State of Israel adheres to the rule of law and is committed to international law and it will continue to do all that is necessary to protect its citizens in accordance with international law.”

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote that the “fundamentally wrong” opinion “mixes politics and law” and “is completely detached from the reality of the Middle East.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that the decision proved, once more, that the court is a political and antisemitic institution.

“The decision in The Hague proves for the umpteenth time that this is a distinctly antisemitic and political organization. We will not accept their preaching; the time has come for governance and sovereignty,” Ben Gvir declared.

Leaders from Judea and Samaria also spoke out against the ICJ’s decision with Israel Gantz, the head of the Binyamin Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, stating that the ICJ should be internationally condemned for being “contrary to justice, the Bible, morality, and international law.”

“The Western Wall, the Cave of the Patriarchs, Jerusalem and all of Judea, Samaria, Benjamin, and the Jordan Valley are the property of our ancestors. No opinion will erase the historical truth or undermine the deep connection between the people of Israel and its country,” he said.

The same issue was brought before the ICJ in 2022 by the UN General Assembly, where it asked the court to issue an advisory opinion on the legal implications of Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation” of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

More than 50 nations appeared before the ICJ, with the majority asking the court to find the ‘occupation’ illegal with just a handful, including Canada and Great Britain, asking the court to refuse to issue an opinion on the issue. 

Two decades ago, the ICJ issued advisory opinions against Israeli settlements.

In 2004, the ICJ stated that the settlements were in breach of international law, as it ruled that the security barrier in the West Bank was “contrary to international law."