On July 10th, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel was occupying the West Bank in violation of the Geneva Convention and was building an illegal “wall” (97% of the barrier is chain-link fence). The ruling was illegal, undemocratic, politicized and, in short, a bad joke from a kangaroo court. Read on to find out why.

First of all, the ruling is not even legal and it contradicts the very charter of the Court. Article 36 of the Statute of the ICJ states that contentious issues may only be brought before the court with the consent of all sides involved. Israel did not consent to the arbitration of the Court, and according to the Statute it should have ended there. The arrogance of the ICJ, however, led it to make an illegal ruling against it’s own principles.

This matter was brought before the ICJ by the request of UN Resolution ES 10/14. However, 30 countries (including the USA, Great Britain, Russia and 15 European Union members) actually submitted affidavits to the ICJ stating that they believed the court had no legitimate jurisdiction.

The hearings themselves were highly anti-Semitic. The ICJ allowed a total of 78 Arab countries and organisations to testify against Israel, however, only one - the Palestinians - had any experience of the matter or any interest in the outcome. This is akin to having a murder trial in which you have one witness, and 77 people who had absolutely nothing to do with the matter but went to high school with the accused and didn’t like him. Israel has no representative on the 15-judge panel, but Palestine and Egypt do. This flies in the face of any notion of judicial objectivity when the judges themselves have an interest in one particular outcome.

Despite what many are saying, the ICJ actually has no jurisdiction. It’s opinion is merely advisory. What we have seen is an undemocratic and highly politicised body offer non-binding opinion in direct contradiction of it’s very principles. Israel is right to ignore it.

Historic ICJ ruling: 1967 land is ‘occupied’

For the first time, an international court has ruled that land captured by Israel in the 1967 war is occupied territory - a boost for Palestinians, but Israel says it won’t change its policy.

Friday’s decision by the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands referred to the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and Israeli settlements in these areas as violating the Geneva Conventions.