UN Court Opens Hearings into Israel’s Occupation of Lands

On Monday, the Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad Al-Maliki accused Israel of apartheid as he called on the United Nations’ top court to state that Israel’s occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state is illegal and must end immediately and unconditionally.

This came at the start of historic hearings into the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state. The case stands against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which immediately became a focal point of the day, the hearings were meant to center on Israel’s open-ended control over the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and annexed east Jerusalem.

Al-Maliki said he stood before the International Court of Justice "as 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, half of them children, are besieged and bombed, killed and maimed, starved and displaced."

He continued: "More than 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, including in Jerusalem, are subjected to colonization of their territory and racist violence that enables it."