IRELAND HAS CONDEMNED Israeli settlements of Palestinian land, the “destruction and appropriation” of Palestinians’ property by settlers and recent “sustained and serious” violence against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

In a forcefully worded intervention in the Hague this morning, Attorney General Rossa Fanning also said Ireland believed Israel had exceeded the limits to self-defence set out in international law in its response in Gaza to the October 7 Hamas attack.

Fanning told the court this was evidenced by the “spiralling death toll”, the “destruction” of homes, the “desplacement of up to 2 million people” and the “ensuing humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.

He also voiced Ireland’s condemnation of the October 7 attack, including the “rape and murder of civilians”, the taking of hostages, the “use of human shields” and other serious violations of international humanitarian law.

He said Ireland was dismayed by the implications of the ongoing hostilities for resolving the wider conflict between Israel and Palestine.

“This is a tragic conflict between two peoples and any solution for it to endure requires each to respect the rights of the others,” Fanning said.

Powerful statement by Attorney General on behalf of 🇮🇪 at International Court of Justice hearings on legal consequences of Israeli practices & policies in Palestine. We have concluded 🇮🇱 has committed serious breaches of international law. Full statement: https://t.co/RKEqIsbEYt

— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) February 22, 2024

The ICJ is hearing a case on the “legal consequences” of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967, in particular the West Bank, just a month after the court directed Tel Aviv to do all it could to prevent genocide in Gaza in a separate case focused on the ongoing Israeli onslaught on the Palestinian enclave.

The ICJ has been asked by the UN General Assembly to issue an advisory opinion in this latest case on the Occupied Territories and Fanning urged it strongly to do, stating that a clarification of the international law issues surrounding the “prolonged occupation” would provide a “stable foundation for a just resolution”.

Trading with settlements

Fanning said there was an obligation on the rest of the world to “cooperate to bring to an end” to Israel’s breach of the requirement to respect Palestinians’ right to self-determination. The international community must also ensure it does not “recognise as lawful” Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory and its settlement activities.

In practice, that means all states and international organisations with responsibility for trade – including the EU – should review their trading relationships with the settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Fanning said.

States should “take steps to prevent trade that assists in the maintenance of the situation created by the settlement activity, or that implicitly recognises or serves to entrench or legitimise Israel’s settlement or annexation of that territory”, he told the court.

Last week, Ireland requested an urgent review by the EU of its trade deal with Israel. An Occupied Territories Bill that would ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements has passed a number of stages in the Oireachtas but the government has resisted enacting it to date.

West Bank

Fanning said that “the defining feature of Israel’s occupation in the West Bank has been continuous settlement activity”.

He said “Israel has…continued to unlawfully destroy and appropriate property throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories as part of its policy of encouraging and facilitating the expansion of settlements”.

He said Israel had used various means to exert control over “as much land…as possible” in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Once in control of this land it has established permanent settlements and encouraged “large numbers” of its citizens to transfer. 

“Through its actions it has fundamentally altered the demographics of the West Bank” and East Jeruslaem, Fanning said, adding that this contravened the fourth Geneva Convention, as does the destruction and appropriation of property to facilitate the expansion of settlements.

He said that Israel was also annexing Palestinian territory by extending the application of domestic Israeli law to the settlements.

“The evident permanence of the settlements can only be explained, in Ireland’s assessment, by Israel’s intention of annexing the land upon which they are built,” Fanning argued.

In our view, the development and expansion of settlements clearly demonstrate that Israel is – and has been – engaged in a process of annexation of that land for decades.” 

He said this process of annexation was in “clear breach” of international law against the acquisition of territory by threat or use of force, adding that the lack of a formal declaration of annexation by Israel was “immaterial” to the question of whether the lands in question were in fact effectively annexed.

Fanning went on to note a “recent marked increase” in reports of Palestinian citizens being subjected to “sustained, serious violence” by Israeli settlers “with little or no protection from the Israeli security forces, contrary to international humanitarian law”.

The security forces have been reported and recorded not only watching this violence without intervening, but in some instances, even participating in themselves.

“This has escalated since the 7 October and the [UN] Secretary General has warned that tensions have now reached boiling point,” Fanning said.

Fanning said “the nature scale and duration of [Israeli] settlement activity is such that its purpose can only be to permanently obstruct the exercise of the Palestinian people’s right to self determination”.

The settlements threaten the viability of a future Palestinian state, which Ireland believes should be “independent, democratic, contiguous, viable and sovereign”, Fanning said, adding that Ireland also wants to see a “safe and secure” Israel.

As the case opened this week, Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki urged the court to deem Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land illegal, adding that it should end “immediately and unconditionally”. He also described the second-class status of Palestinians living in Israel as a system of apartheid.

Israel will not make an oral presentation to the court but in a written submission it described the questions the court had been asked as “prejudicial” and “tendentious”.