Israel was disturbed by the majority adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of a resolution requesting a legal opinion from the International Court of Justice regarding the legal implications of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. What is Tel Aviv afraid of?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu severely criticized the decision, which refers the violations of the Israeli occupation to the attention of the International Court of Justice, a goal that the Palestinians have long sought to achieve, so that its effectiveness depends on what the court will respond to in terms of adapting these violations and determining the extent of its jurisdiction over them, in addition to the legal consequences that it has. It will result in adopting the file of these violations.

Regarding the importance of the decision of the United Nations General Assembly, the Director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Raji Sourani, described it as a smart and strategic step in the Palestinian cause, explaining that Palestine raises before the International Court of Justice the issue of the legality of the Israeli occupation, which was described as bloody and oppressive.

Sourani stressed - in his interview with the "Beyond the News" program (1/1/2023) - that there is no justification for the continuation of the Israeli occupation and the deprivation of the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination, considering that this decision puts the countries of the world in front of a moral and humanitarian test before it is legally.

What is Israel afraid of?

As for what distinguishes this decision, Abdul Hamid Siam, an expert on United Nations affairs, considered that it is different from his predecessors, because it is judging belief and not just practices carried out by Israel, explaining that what frightens Israel is that the International Court of Justice will issue a ruling on the legality and legitimacy of the occupation.

Siam stressed that Tel Aviv fears that a legal opinion will be issued - from the highest international authority in international law - stating that the occupation is illegal, which impedes the right of the Palestinian people to achieve their destiny, and this is what made it put pressure on all countries to support it in this legal battle.

For his part, the Executive Director of the Institute of International Affairs at the Center for Transatlantic Studies, Edward Joseph, saw that this decision was passed because there were enough votes to pass it in the United Nations General Assembly, explaining that the International Court of Justice does not want to involve itself in political cases and disputes, and this is what makes the loss This issue is to be expected.

It is noteworthy that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) commented on the UN move by saying that the vote of the UN General Assembly in favor of the resolution joins a long series of international resolutions that did not turn into a pressure step on the occupation.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Palestinian people will defeat all the miserable attempts of the new Netanyahu government, as he put it, and the Palestinians will remain clinging to their historical and legal rights.

On the Israeli side, Netanyahu said that the decision of the United Nations General Assembly will not be binding on the Israeli government, and the Israeli Broadcasting Authority published on Twitter a video clip of the Israeli Prime Minister responding to the decision, saying, "This decision is similar to hundreds of decisions taken in the General Assembly against Israel. which he described as disfigured.

Netanyahu described the decision as despicable, and said that the Jewish people are not occupiers of their land nor occupiers of their eternal capital, Jerusalem, as he put it.

He pointed out that he had held talks in recent days with a number of world leaders who had changed their vote, as he put it.

Shocking numbers

In the context of talking about Israeli violations, the Palestinian Prisoners Club revealed that the Israeli occupation forces arrested 7 thousand Palestinian prisoners during the past year.

The club stated in a statement that among the detainees were 828 children and 172 women, and explained that the occupied city of Jerusalem witnessed the highest rate of arrests during the past year, with about 3,000 detainees, and that more than 2,400 administrative detention orders were issued against Palestinian prisoners without submitting indictments.

The statement accused the occupation authorities of practicing slow killing through medical negligence against the prisoners.