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Context:  The UNGA ended 2022 by passing a resolution that asked the body’s highest court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to render its opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s prolonged occupation of Palestinian land.

Details:

• The resolution was passed with 87 member countries voting favourably, as opposed to 26 countries, including the U.S. and Israel, voting against it. India was one of the 53 countries that abstained from the vote.

How has Israel altered its occupation of Palestinian land over the years?

• Official Israeli statistics show that Jewish settlers existed in historical Palestine even before the state of Israel was declared in 1948.
• A UNGA resolution had earlier sought to partition British mandate Palestine.
• But as the UN partition plan was rejected by the Arabs and the British mandate was coming to an end, Zionists went ahead declaring independence, triggering the first Arab-Israel war.
• When the war was over, Israel had captured more territories than what the UN plan had proposed and some 7,00,000 Palestinians were displaced
• Historical Palestine was divided into the State of Israel (including West Jerusalem), the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) that was taken over by Jordan and the Gaza Strip (controlled by Egypt).
• Tensions kept rising between Israel and three countries in the region — Egypt, Jordan, and Syria — which led to the six-day war of 1967.
• The war resulted in Israel capturing the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, along with Syria’s Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt.
• While the Sinai Peninsula was later returned to Egypt, other captured areas of Palestinian and Syrian territory remain under Israel’s military control.
• Later, Israel also declared the whole of Jerusalem as its “eternal, undivided capital”. While Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, it’s external borders are still controlled by Israel and Egypt.
• While the UN Security Council passed a resolution in late 1967 stating that Israel must withdraw from the territories it seized in the war, it is yet to happen and the fate of Palestinian self-determination remains uncertain.
• Palestinians seek the West Bank as the heartland of a future independent State. However, in the decades since the 1967 war, Israel has constructed dozens of Jewish settlements in West Bank, alongside the three million Palestinians living under Israeli military rule.
• Most of the international community considers Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace. Incidents of violence and killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces have become common over the years.

What does the resolution seek to do?

• The resolution passed by the UNGA on December 30 asked the ICJ to provide its advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s “occupation, settlement and annexation ... including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures.”
• While the U.S. rejected the resolution and major European powers abstained, the vote got unanimous support from the Arab nations.
• There are two possibilities when a referral is made to the ICJ, it can either lead to a settlement with a party withdrawing its case or it can lead to a trial followed by a verdict. While its rulings are binding, the ICJ has no power to enforce them.

International Court of Justice (ICJ):

• It is the principal judicial organof the United Nations (UN).
• It was established in June 1945by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946.
• ICJ is the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), which was brought into being by the League of Nations in 1922.
• Seat: ICJ is based at the Peace Palace in The Hague. It is the only one of the six principal organs of the UN that is not located in New York City.
• Roles:“to settle legal disputes submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies”.
• Membership:All members of the UN are automatically parties to the ICJ statute, but this does not automatically give the ICJ jurisdiction over disputes involving them. The ICJ gets jurisdiction only if both parties consent to it.
• Appellate: The judgment of the ICJ is final and technically binding on the parties to a case. There is no provision of appeal;it can at the most, be subject to interpretation or, upon the discovery of a new fact, revision.
• ICJ has no way to ensure compliance of its orders, and its authority is derived from the willingness of countries to abide by them.
• ICJ has 15 judgeswho are elected to nine-year terms by the UN General Assembly and Security Council, which vote simultaneously but separately. Four Indians have been members of the ICJ so far. Justice Dalveer Bhandari, former judge of the Supreme Court, has been serving at the ICJ since 2012.

India at the ICJ:

• India has been a party to a case at the ICJ on six occasions, four of which have involved Pakistan.
• They are:
  • Right of Passage over Indian Territory (Portugal v. India, culminated 1960);
  • Appeal Relating to the Jurisdiction of the ICAO Council (India v. Pakistan, culminated 1972);
  • Trial of Pakistani Prisoners of War (Pakistan v. India, culminated 1973);
  • Aerial Incident of 10 August 1999 (Pakistan v. India, culminated 2000);
  • Obligations concerning Negotiations relating to Cessation of the Nuclear Arms Race and to Nuclear Disarmament (Marshall Islands v. India, culminated 2016); and
  • (Kulbhushan) Jadhav (India v. Pakistan, culminated 2019).

ICJ Vs. ICC:

What is the UNGA?

• The UN General Assembly (UNGA), the United Nation’s chief policy-making and representative organ, was created in 1945.
• It meets from September to December every year, and then again between January and August.
• At the beginning of each regular session in September, the Assembly holds its main event — the general debate, where representatives of each member state are provided the opportunity to raise any issues that concern them.
• It is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations(UN).
• It serves as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN
• Its powers, composition, functions, and procedures are set out in Chapter IV of the United Nations Charter.
• The UNGA is responsible for the UN budget, appointing the non-permanent members to the Security Council, appointing the Secretary-General of the United Nations, receiving reports from other parts of the UN system, and making recommendations through resolutions
• It also establishes numerous subsidiary organs to advance or assist in its broad mandate.
• The UNGA is the only UN organ wherein all member states have equal representation.
• It can reconvene for special and emergency special sessions.
• Voting in the General Assembly on certain important questions—namely recommendations on peace and security; budgetary concerns; and the election, admission, suspension or expulsion of members—is by a two-thirds majority of those present and voting.Other questions are decided by a simple majority. Each member country has one vote.
• Apart from the approval of budgetary matters, including the adoption of a scale of assessment, Assembly resolutions are not binding on the members.
• All 193 members of the United Nations are members of the General Assembly, with the addition of Holy See and Palestine as observer states.

 

Background: 

ISRAEL PALESTINE CONFLICT TIMELINE
1799	Napoleon offers Palestine as a home to the Jews.
1882	Rishon Le Zion, a major Zionist settlement is established in Palestine.
1885	The term Zionism is first coined.
1897	First Zionist congress is held in Switzerland and first Zionist organization is founded.
1916	Sykes-Picot agreement is signed dividing middle east between French and British.
1917	Balfour declaration is created. Britain promises a Jewish national home on Arab land.
1919	King-Crane Commission on the future of Palestine.
1922	League of Nations gives approval to British promises.
1929	Al-Buraq uprising, the first mass protests against increased Jewish migration.
1935	Peel Commission recommends partition of Palestine.
1947	UN adopts Resolution 181, a partition plan for Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states which Palestine rejects.
1948	The state of Israel is created.
1949	First Arab-Israeli war and Israel seizes more land than agreed in armistices. Gaza strip is created. UN establishes UNRWA.
1950	Jordan assumes control of the West Bank.
1964	Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) is formed.
1967	6-day war and Israel occupies rest of Palestine including West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights (Syria), Sinai (Egypt). UNSC calls on Israel to withdraw from these areas.
1978	Egypt and Israel sign the Camp David accords
1987	First Intifada is launched in occupied Palestine territory.
1991	Madrid Peace Conference ends.
1993	Oslo Accord Signed. Palestine and Israeli leaders sign a Declaration of Principles in Washington. Here the PLO is recognized by Israel and given some powers in Gaza. The PLO recognizes Israel’s right to exist. Violence is stopped. They agreed on a plan to implement a two-state solution as part of the Oslo Accords, leading to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
2000	Camp David II Summit where Israel and PLO renew final status negotiations.
2002	Israel reoccupies Palestinian cities in West Bank in the wake of 2nd Intifada.
2005	Israel agrees to withdraw from Gaza but maintains control of airspace and some imports/exports while restricting some travel.
2008	Israel invades Gaza in Operation Cast Lead.
2014	50-day conflict over the summer in Operation Protective Edge after more rockets are launched at Israel. Israel invades Gaza again.
2017	U.S. announces decision to relocate the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as Israel’s capital.

 

Key Terms:

Fatah and Hamas:

• Fatah is the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization closely identified with the leadership of its founder Yasser Arafat. Hamas is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist organization.
• In the 2006 parliamentary election, Fatah lost its majority in the Palestinian parliament to Hamas.
• This led to a conflict between Fatah and Hamas, with Fatah retaining control of the Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank, while Hamas dominated Gaza.
• Both are pledged to restore to Islamic rule the whole of Mandate Palestine.
• Their fundamental disagreement is over the strategy for achieving this common purpose, i.e Fatah believes more in peaceful process, whereas Hamas wants to resort to violence.

First Intifada: Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip fomented the riots begun in 1987, known as the first intifada.

Madrid Conference of 1991 was a peace conference co-sponsored by the United States and the Soviet Union. It was an attempt by the international community to revive the Israeli–Palestinian peace process through negotiations, involving Israel and the Palestinians as well as Arab countries, including Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Oslo Peace Accord: With the mediation of US and Russia in 1993, Israel and PLO signed the Oslo Peace accord which was based on the concept of two-state solution.

Camp David Summit (2000): It aimed to help the two sides finally agree on a settlement, but the talks eventually failed. The violence led to the Second Intifada.

Second Intifada (2000-05): In 2000, a more violent Palestine Uprising started and a large number of civilians died on both sides, 

Gaza Expulsion plan (2005): This is a unilateral disarmament plan by Israel by which Israel’s defence forces leave the Gaza strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank.

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