The United Nations’ highest court said on Friday that Israel’s settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal and should be withdrawn immediately. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the court’s opinion.
The opinion, which was handed down by a panel of 15 judges from around the world, including the United States, had 11 votes in favor and four against in declaring the settlements illegal.
The judges in favor include the court’s president from Lebanon, and judges from Somalia, China, India, Japan, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, the United States, and South Africa. The four dissenting judges included the court’s vice-president from Uganda, plus judges from Slovakia, France, and Romania.
In a separate 14–1 vote, the ICJ panel called for the immediate stoppage of new settlement constructions and to “evacuate all settlers” from what the judges described as “occupied Palestinian territory,” referring to East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The lone dissenting judge in this instance was Vice-President Julia Sebutinde from Uganda.
The ICJ opinion also found that the U.N. Security Council, the U.N. General Assembly, and all member states have an obligation not to recognize the settlements as legal and should not “render aid or assistance” toward maintaining Israel’s presence in the territories.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry described the opinion “historic” and urged U.N. states to adhere to it. “No aid. No assistance. No complicity. No money, no arms, no trade ... no actions of any kind to support Israel’s illegal occupation,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said outside the court in The Hague.
The case stems from a 2022 request for a legal opinion from the U.N. General Assembly, predating the Israel–Hamas war in Gaza that began last October. Israel took over the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East conflict known as the Six-Day War that pitted Israel against Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and several other Arab nations.
In a swift response on Friday, Mr. Netanyahu rejected the court’s findings.
Israel’s foreign ministry also rejected the opinion as “fundamentally wrong” and one-sided, and repeated its stance that a political settlement in the region can only be reached by negotiations.
The opinion also angered West Bank settlers as well as politicians such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose party is close to the settler movement and who himself lives in a West Bank settlement.
“The answer to The Hague - Sovereignty now,” he wrote in a post on X, in an apparent appeal to formally annex the West Bank.
Israel Gantz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council, one of the largest settler councils, also said that the ICJ opinion was “contrary to the Bible, morality, and international law.”
The United States, which has not issued a public comment on the ICJ opinion Friday, had asked the court not to order the unconditional withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian territories. The U.S. position was that the court should issue no decision that could hurt negotiations toward a two-state solution on a “land for peace” principle.
The ICJ decision comes months after the International Criminal Court issued a statement saying it would pursue an arrest warrant for Mr. Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and several Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes committed during the Israel-Hamas conflict that erupted after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks that left 1,200 civilians dead and 250 kidnapped, including American citizens.
