[“The study is the most comprehensive and persuasive analysis of
why the Israel occupation has now become illegal. It will be the
intellectual and political touchstone on Palestine and international
law for some time.” says Michael Link, UN Rapporteur]
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UN COMMITTEE RELEASES EXHAUSTIVE STUDY ON THE LEGALITY OF ISRAEL’S
OCCUPATION  
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Jeff Wright
September 4, 2023
Mondoweiss
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_ “The study is the most comprehensive and persuasive analysis of
why the Israel occupation has now become illegal. It will be the
intellectual and political touchstone on Palestine and international
law for some time.” says Michael Link, UN Rapporteur _

Israeli soldiers in the West Bank village of Kafr Dan in Jenin, on
January 2, 2023, during an operation to demolish the homes of two
Palestinians. , Ahmed Ibrahim/APA Images

 

Last week, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights
of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) issued a study two years in the
making: The Legality of the Israeli Occupation of the Occupied
Territories, Including East Jerusalem
[[link removed]]. 

Committee Chair Ambassador Cheikh Niang introduced the study
commissioned by the CEIRPP and prepared by the Irish Human Rights
Centre [[link removed]]
of the National University of Ireland in Galway. Niang said, “The
relevance and urgency of this study cannot be overstated… It is
incumbent upon us, the international community, to deepen our
understanding of the legal issues raised by this prolonged occupation
and its profound impact on human rights, peace, and stability in the
region.”

At the invitation of the UN committee, former UN Special Rapporteur on
Palestine Michael Lynk reflected on the study. He highlighted many of
its findings and described it as “the most comprehensive, the most
detailed, the most thorough documentation addressing the questions
that the UN General Assembly has put before the International Court of
Justice regarding its advisory opinion on the legality of Israel’s
now over 56-year occupation of Palestine.” 

The 106-page report is an exhaustive study (with over 700 footnotes)
concluding that the conduct of Israel meets “two clear grounds in
international law establishing when a belligerent occupation may be
categorized as illegal.” [A belligerent occupation, the term most
often used in international law, is more commonly called a military
occupation and is defined as the military control by a ruling power
over a territory outside of that power’s sovereign territory.]

The study takes the reader into the weeds of international law:
definitions; the points at which an occupation allowed under
international law can be considered an illegal occupation; related
cases settled before the International Court of Justice (ICJ); an
examination—and refutation—of Israel’s policies and positions
regarding its administration of the Palestinian territory; a
presentation of the evidence that the belligerent occupation has
become illegal; and an examination of the responsibility—under
international law—for the international community to act to bring an
end to the occupation.

Still, the legal study is accessible to lay readers. Those
well-informed about the ongoing situation in Palestine/Israel will add
to their understanding through the many resources and findings
uncovered by the study.

While it acknowledges that “the most appropriate forum for examining
the legality of the occupation is the International Court of
Justice,” the study, as it says, “provides the factual basis to
support the finding that Israel’s occupation is illegal.” 

Following a finding of illegality, the study concludes that, according
to international law,

the consequences should be the immediate, unconditional and total
withdrawal of Israel’s military forces; the withdrawal of colonial
settlers; and the dismantling of the military administrative regime,
with clear instructions that withdrawal of breach of an
internationally wrongful act is not subject to negotiation. Full and
commensurate reparations should be accorded to the affected
Palestinian individuals, corporations and entities for the
generational harm caused by Israel’s land and property
appropriations, house demolitions, pillage of natural resources,
denial of return, and other war crimes against humanity orchestrated
for the colonialist, annexationists aims of an illegal occupant.

Arguments are expected to be heard in The Hague by the ICJ next spring
on the legality of the Israel occupation and the legal consequences
incumbent on the international community.

_Mondoweiss_ interviewed now-retired Professor Lynk by phone following
the committee meeting.

_Mondoweiss:_ _How did the study come about, why the Irish Centre for
Human Rights? _

Michel Lynk: The Idea for the study came through the UN Committee on
the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and
the Division for Palestinian Rights. They saw the need for a
wide-ranging study, both for public education and to advance the
diplomatic steps for Palestinian self-determination. 

For many reasons, it made sense to approach the Irish Centre. One,
because Ireland, among all the European states, has taken a very good
position with respect to the wrongs associated with the occupation.
Two, the Centre has produced a number of legal scholars who have gone
on to write a lot about Palestine. Many wound up working with
organizations in Palestine and Israel on questions related to the
occupation and international law. So, the Centre had the inclination,
the understanding of the occupation, and the legal expertise to be
able to do the study. 

Let me say, I’m someone who is deeply invested in reading about
international law and Palestine. Still, I learned a huge amount from
the study. There are many sources, and many resolutions, and many,
many arguments that I was not familiar with. It’s groundbreaking. It
will be the intellectual and political touchstone on Palestine and
international law for some time to come.”

_What are some of the important features of the study?_

The view in much of the Global North—in the U.S. and Canada and many
European countries—is, “Yes, there may be illegalities or
illegitimate actions by Israeli in the conduct of the occupation: the
settlements, the annexation of East Jerusalem, the Wall.” But
overall, these countries have always assumed that the occupation is
legal. They say, “We’re just waiting for the right diplomatic…
the right magic sauce to get the parties together to negotiate an end
to this.”

The study says that there are not only significant illegalities
attached to the occupation, but the occupation itself is now
illegal….

All you have to do is listen to the commentary of recent Israeli
leaders to understand that the occupation is not going to end by the
grace of Israel. Naftali Bennett, when he was Prime Minister two years
ago, said, “I oppose a Palestinian state and I am making it
impossible to conduct diplomatic negotiations that might lead to a
Palestinian state.” Benjamin Netanyahu has said—and I’m
paraphrasing, “The most we’re going to offer Palestinians is a
State-minus. That is, they have the power to collect their garbage,
clean their streets and run their water service. Otherwise, we control
the territory from the Mediterranean to the Jordan.”

_What do you hope will be the study’s impact?_

It should be a landmark in diplomatic thinking about how to confront,
how to end the Israeli occupation, the stated goal of every state in
the world, aside from Israel. If the occupation itself is illegal,
this raises the bar of responsibility on the international community,
particularly the Global North, for finally accepting that the
occupation will not end by itself. It’s not going to end by
repeating the mantra of “negotiations for a two-state solution,”
when nothing is being done by the Global North to impose a
diplomatic… an economic cost on Israel for doing everything it can
to write the obituary for Palestinian self-determination.

_The hearing that will come before the ICJ, what practical, concrete
end can we anticipate?_

In December last year, the UN adopted a resolution asking the
International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on a number of
issues—whether the prolonged occupation is still legal, what are the
legal consequences arising from Israel’s adoption of related
discriminatory measures, what are the legal consequences for the
international community and the United Nations. You’ll remember that
the ICJ is the highest judicial body in the UN system. In 2004, it
delivered an advisory opinion which determined that Israel’s
separation wall was illegal. 

Now, a number of countries—primarily from the Global South—have
delivered written statements to the ICJ, arguing that the occupation
has become illegal, that it must end immediately. Some have argued
that Israel has violated fundamental norms of international law by
instituting apartheid. Just a handful of states—including the United
States, Israel, the United Kingdom and Canada—have submitted
statements asking the ICJ not to grant the request by the General
Assembly for an advisory opinion, arguing that everything should be
settled at a negotiating table instead. 

…The only way that the Palestinians can ever hope to bargain
effectively at a negotiating table is if the international community
insists that any negotiations between Israel and Palestine be
conducted entirely within a rights-based framework, with the central
demand that Israel end the occupation completely, immediately and
unconditionally. And that Israel is responsible for reparations to
Palestinians for what’s happened over the last many decades. 

_Any personal reflections on your work?_

I consider it the honor of my life to have served as the UN Special
Rapporteur for the six years [2016-2022]. Before my appointment, I had
done a fair amount of work on Palestine and Israel, I had lived in the
occupied territory and worked at the UN, I had read widely on
Palestine. But the opportunity as Special Rapporteur to speak on the
international stage about the deteriorating state of human rights, to
meet the very brave Palestinian, Israeli and international human
rights organizations that did stellar work on this issue, it’s been
the most meaningful experience of my legal career. 

I’ll add this: Those six years marked an important turning point.
All of a sudden, you could begin to see the titanic change in
direction. It was blasphemous in 2016 to state the word _apartheid_.
By the time I left in 2022, the word _apartheid_ had been adopted by
every major international and regional human rights organization to
describe what was going on in the occupied territory… plus that
which happened after my time: the arrival of this new extreme Israeli
government, the hardening of the international attitude towards the
occupation. I think international attitudes are changing, changing
rapidly. They wouldn’t have changed without all these human rights
organizations on the ground in Palestine and Israel who did such
heroic work to change the vocabulary, to change the understanding
about what is going on.

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Jeff Wright is an ordained minister of the Christian Church (Disciples
of Christ).

* Israel Occupation; Palestinian People; United Nations; Michael Lynk
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