Palestine’s statement submission to ICJ an ‘international legal occasion’ — Kanaan

AMMAN — Secretary-General of the Royal Committee for Jerusalem Affairs Abdullah Kanaan stressed that Palestine's handover of its argument to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday over the case of Israeli colonialism and settlement is to be considered an "international legal occasion".

The purpose of this pragmatic step is to combat the apartheid and Israeli criminality and to punish the occupation for its war crimes against unarmed people with historic and legitimate rights, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Palestinian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad Al Maliki on Monday submitted Palestine's written argument to the ICJ at its headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, in order to enable the court to render its legal opinion on the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and the resulting legal consequences.

Kanaan noted that the ICJ had already issued an advisory opinion in 2004 criminalising the wall of racial segregation and its grave negative impact on land and Palestinians in the occupied Palestine, stressing that the restoration of the judicial compass and international legitimacy towards occupied Palestine, especially in light of the great acceleration of global events and crises, reinforced the assertion that the issue of Palestine and Jerusalem would remain at the forefront of global peace and security.

The committee urged the ICJ to consider this historic occasion in hope and confidence that the practices based on political double standards will shift away from the pressure and lobbies in support of the Israeli occupation.