UN Experts Say Israel 'Must Stop Acting as If Uniquely Above the Law'

The United Nations' largest body of independent human rights experts on Tuesday said Israel is compelled to comply with a recent International Court of Justice ruling that said its "unlawful" military occupation of Palestinian territories in Gaza and the West Bank must come to a rapid end.

The group of 39 special rapporteurs and members of various working groups, which collectively help form what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, hailed the July 19 ruling by the ICJ as "historic"—and one that should bolster the prospects for the end of Israel's military control of the occupied territories and strengthen international law more broadly.

The advisory opinion of the ICJ, said the experts in a statement, "reaffirms peremptory norms prohibiting annexation, settlements, racial segregation and apartheid, and should be seen as declaratory in nature and binding on Israel and all States supporting the occupation."

"Israel must comply with this advisory opinion, and other ICJ orders issued this year," the experts added. "Israel must stop acting as if uniquely above the law."

"May the ICJ advisory opinion be the catalyst for renewed international action to restore and preserve an international order premised on respect for international law."

Notably, the experts said, the ICJ ruling dismissed the idea that self-determination for the Palestinian people "must be achieved solely through bilateral negotiations with Israel—a requirement that has subjected Palestinians to violence, dispossession and rights violations for 30 years," since the Oslo Accords.

"The Court has finally reaffirmed a principle that seemed unclear, even to the United Nations: Freedom from foreign military occupation, racial segregation and apartheid is absolutely non-negotiable," the experts argued. "May this historic ruling begin the realization of the Palestinian people's fundamental right to self-determination, and peace premised on freedom for all."

While the Israel military continues its assault on Gaza—where as many as 186,000 people are estimated to have been killed over nine months of bombing and a ground incursion—the death toll, annexation of land, and systematic attack on human rights have all escalated in the West Bank as well.

The experts said that given the ICJ's examination of whether or not Israel has violated the Genocide Convention—and amidst widespread concern over war crimes and other violations perpetrated by Israeli officials, commanders, and soldiers in the field—the nation's global allies must "challenge Israel's deliberate efforts to rewrite the rules of international humanitarian law, using it as 'humanitarian camouflage' to legitimize potentially genocidal violence against all Palestinians."

"For too long, Palestinians have been held hostage to realpolitik, while Israel has made a mockery of international order and the normative framework of international law," the experts said. "May the ICJ advisory opinion be the catalyst for renewed international action to restore and preserve an international order premised on respect for international law."