O historic decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on July 19 calls for an immediate end to Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid regime. This decision reinforces a clear path to peace – based on a sovereign state of Palestine in the context of the two-state solution.
According to the ICJ, Israel must withdraw from all occupied Palestinian territory, cease all settlement activities, evacuate all settlers and pay compensation.
The end of the illegal occupation is not conditional on a bilateral peace process between Israel and Palestine. In his statement, ICJ President Nawaf Salam stated: “[Israeli] the withdrawal cannot be conditioned on the success of negotiations whose outcome will depend on Israel’s approval. In particular, Israel cannot invoke the need for a prior agreement on its security claims, as such a condition could lead to the perpetuation of its illegal occupation.”
The ICJ’s decision is a vindication of the rights of the Palestinian people, who have suffered decades of oppression. It is also a rejection of the position of the United States, which insists on Israel’s agreement to a political settlement as a condition for ending the occupation.
Palestine’s sovereignty, based on the two-state solution and the borders of June 4, 1967, cannot be held hostage by Israel’s apartheid policies. The two-state solution is a matter of international law, not Israel’s internal politics, much less its extremism. Diplomatic negotiations, under the auspices of the United Nations, can and should focus on implementing Israel’s withdrawal from occupied territory and the mutual security agreements of the two states living side by side.
The US has been a defender for decades of a cynical “peace process” between Israel and Palestine that is designed to fail. The obvious truth is that the occupying power, Israel, and the people under occupation, Palestine, will never be on equal terms in negotiations. The Palestinians were forced to negotiate under extreme pressure, while Israel continued to commit flagrant violations of international law.
However, the inequality of bargaining power has been far worse than the blatant inequality of power between the occupier and the occupied. The US has been holding its own for decades and has consistently been a dishonest broker. The US political elite is completely pro-Zionist, as it is notoriously financed by the Israeli lobby (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and others) and is deeply linked to Israel’s military and security apparatus, especially the links CIA-Mossad.
The US blames Palestine for all failures in negotiations, even when Israel’s intransigence and opposition to the two-state solution are the obvious, indeed glaring, obstacles to peace. More recently, the Israeli Knesset voted to reject the two-state solution.
The latest demonstration of US policy was the reception given to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the US Congress. Despite – or more precisely because of – the appeal of the ICC prosecutor for Netanyahu’s arrest for war crimes, Congress met Netanyahu’s lies with repeated ovations.
Congress’ obedience to the Israel lobby was especially vile given that the UNO ICJ and the International Criminal Court recently concluded that the Israeli military has systematically targeted civilians, starving them to death, inflicting collective punishment and deliberately destroying Gaza’s infrastructure.
A devastating regional war is just around the corner unless the international community acts quickly and decisively to secure a two-state solution. In Lebanon, cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel have intensified. The conflict is also growing with attacks between Israel and Yemen’s Houthis. The US could end the war now if it wanted. Without American financial and military support, Israel does not have the means to wage war on multiple fronts.
After rejecting multiple ceasefire proposals, even those supported by the US, it is clear that the Israeli government is not interested in ending the war. Israel’s extremist government wants a broader conflict that will draw the US into an open war with Iran. The latest outrage is Israel’s assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. This is a dangerous escalation, on foreign soil, that deliberately and flagrantly undermines efforts at negotiation and a peaceful diplomatic resolution of the conflict.
While Congress applauded Netanyahu’s lies, the most important story in US politics was happening outside Congress, on the streets of Washington (and on campuses across the country). The American people, especially young Americans, are tired of the U.S. government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide. In March, most Americans turned against Israel’s actions in Gaza. They want the war to stop, not to expand.
Governments around the world are supporting justice, just as in UN General Assembly overwhelming support for Palestine to become the 194th member state of the UN. Palestinian political factions also came together, supported by Chinese diplomacy, to form a government of national unity. The world community welcomed the ICJ’s decision to end the illegal occupation of Israel.
A comprehensive peace based on a two-state solution is achievable and within our reach. According to the recent decision of the ICJ and the votes of the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council (but with the US veto), the path to peace is clear: Palestine must immediately be welcomed as a member state of the UN with borders from June 4, 1967, and with its capital in East Jerusalem.
In short, peace is much closer than it may seem, built on the unity of the people of Palestine; the strong and repeated support of Arab and Islamic states for the two-state solution; the goodwill of nearly the entire world community, including the American people; and the support of international law and the United Nations.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
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