Israel Responds to Palestinian Move to Involve International Court of Justice

Tel Aviv, MINA – The Israeli government said it would take retaliatory steps in response to the Palestinian decision to involve the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the decades-long conflict.

The steps decided by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Security Cabinet include using Palestinian money to compensate victims of attacks by Palestinian militants and imposing a moratorium on Palestinian construction in several areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“This comes as a “response to the decision of the Palestinian Authority to wage a political and legal war against the State of Israel”, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement as quoted from Middle East Monitor on Saturday.

Last week, following an appeal by the Palestinians, the UN General Assembly asked the Hague-based International Court of Justice to provide an opinion on the legal ramifications of Israel’s 55-year-old Occupation of the Palestinian Territories.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem territory that the Palestinians wanted for a state in the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but along with neighboring Egypt controls the territory’s borders. The Palestinian Authority (PA) had limited self-rule in the West Bank under interim peace deals in the 1990s.

The International Court of Justice is the highest UN court that deals with disputes between countries. Its decisions are binding, although it has no power to enforce them. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)