Fifty-seven years have passed since Israeli forces swept through East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, known in Israel as the Six Days War.
Ever since these areas have remained under Israeli military occupation. A brutal occupation to be sure.
But it was a legal occupation, according to the letter of international law, which sets out duties and responsibilities that an occupying power must uphold in territory under its control during armed conflict.
Certainly, many of the actions carried out by the Israeli government, above all the transfer of 700,000 settlers into occupied territory, are widely regarded to have been in direct defiance of international law.
Friday’s momentous advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the UN’s top court, changes that. ….more
