The Paradox of the ICJ's Legal Opinion on Israel's Occupation of Palestine and its Solution

In the midst of the Israel-Hamas war that broke out on October 7, 2023 and has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians, a historic moment in the form of an advisory opinion was issued by the highest judicial institution of the United Nations (UN) on July 19, 2024 (Reuters, July 20, 2024). The highest judicial institution of the United Nations called the International Court of Justice (ICJ), based in The Hague, Netherlands, delivered its legal opinion that Israel's occupation of Palestine - which has been going on for decades - is illegal or violates international law so that the court urges Israel to immediately stop all forms of colonization, annexation and occupation of Palestine.

Source: Reuters/Michael Kooren

Unfortunately, the ICJ's opinion is non-binding so that it cannot oblige Israel to immediately comply with what the ICJ has decided. This means that even though the ICJ has expressed its legal view that Israel is guilty and all of its occupation actions against Palestine are illegal, the institution cannot punish Israel if the Zionist state does not implement the ICJ's decision. The ICJ's decision inevitably drew mixed responses from the international community. Countries such as Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Egypt, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Norway, Spain, Slovenia, United Kingdom, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Turkey responded positively to the release of the ICJ's legal opinion regarding Israel's occupation of Palestine. They stated that they respect international law and hope that Israel's illegal settlement construction in the Palestinian territories will end (Aljazeera, July 20, 2024).

As usual, only the United States opposes and criticizes the ICJ. The US argues that the ICJ's legal opinion will only complicate efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In fact, Uncle Sam's country asked the ICJ not to order Israel to withdraw its troops unconditionally from Palestine. This is the rotten reality of a world monopolized by the United States. Until whenever the US will never allow Israel to be punished and ostracized internationally. The US will do everything possible to defend Israel's crimes. The UN as an international organization and a form of representation of the world order that oversees the nation states that are its members both through Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the latest ICJ has actually sided with Palestine and against any violations of international norms committed by Israel against Palestine.

Their efforts are only hampered by the US, which is never happy to see an independent and sovereign Palestinian nation. More than that, the author has his own views regarding the issuance of the legal opinion of the 15-judge ICJ panel read by Chief Judge Nawas Salam. In my opinion, the ICJ's legal opinion is useless and has no impact on the future of Palestine. This is because the legal opinion that has been submitted by the ICJ in response to the request of the UN General Assembly in 2022 which requested the ICJ's legal opinion regarding Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories which later triggered the chronic conflict between the two nation-state entities could not bite Israel. The ICJ's legal opinion is only an appeal and cannot force Israel to follow the ICJ's orders. As a result, the ICJ cannot impose sanctions and punish Israel if then the country led by Benjamin Netanyahu still insists on occupying Palestine, continuing the construction of Israeli Jewish settlements on Palestinian land.

It is at this point that the author views the ICJ's good steps to be futile and paradoxical to the spirit of the international community that aspires to create a truly just world order in accordance with the UN Charter which requires that each UN member state has the right to self-determination where until this moment the right has not been fully enjoyed by the Palestinians due to Israel's arbitrary attitude supported by its eternal ally the United States. And unfortunately, international structures such as the UN are not really firmly supporting Palestine as evidenced by the issuance of the ICJ legal opinion some time ago. This condition can be understood by the author because until now, the US is the biggest sponsor of UN operational funding so it makes sense if every UN decision is still under the shadow of the US and does not dare to disturb the interests of the superpower and its allies.

Responding to the inaction of the UN policy regarding the fate of Palestine, the author always sees the idea of UN reform that was once delivered by Indonesia's first President Sukarno in his speech entitled “To Build the World a New” at the UN headquarters on September 30, 1960 will always be relevant in answering every challenge and problem of the world that is increasingly complex. That the UN does not only belong to one country called the US and other UN member countries are only spectators. Reforming the UN by not making certain countries have privileges over other countries, seeing all UN member countries as equal and not merely depending on UN funding operations only on countries that are considered superpowers is a necessity so that every decision taken by institutions or institutions under the auspices of the UN has the power and authority that binds all UN member countries without exception.

The author believes that only with steps like this, the UN as a United Nations organization can solve every problem of its members without the need to be disturbed by a particular power. The long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict will only be resolved if the UN is reformed, which is realized by the assertiveness of the UN and its organizational bodies such as the ICJ or the International Court of Justice in taking action against parties that are proven wrong and violate international law. Without UN reform, policies issued by the UN are only a formality because they do not dare to bind the parties concerned so that acute problems such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will never get a solution. The conflict between the two countries will never end because the UN, which should be able to act firmly against those who are proven wrong, cannot punish the parties concerned so that those who are proven right will never get their rights because of the parties in the UN organizational structure that hinder them.