International Court Of Justice Holds Israel's Population Session In Palestine Monday, Foreign Minister Retno Speech Friday

Israel's border with Palestine in the West Bank. (Wikimedia Commons / Harry Pockets)

JAKARTA - The International Court (ICJ) held a hearing discussing the status and legal consequences of the Palestinian occupation by Israel starting Monday and will last during the week.

More than 50 countries and international organizations will deliver speeches before judges to give their opinions.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki will be the first speaker in the legal process at a court based in The Hague, the Netherlands, reported by Reuters on February 19.

Among the countries scheduled to participate in the hearing are the United States, China, Russia, South Africa, Indonesia and Egypt. Israel itself will not, even though it has sent written observations.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its upload on social media X wrote, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi is scheduled to make a speech at the trial on February 23.

The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote that a total of 53 countries and 3 international organizations were scheduled to deliver verbal statements.

This session is in accordance with the UN General Assembly's request for a pawnshop in 2022, to provide advice, or non-binding opinions regarding Israel's occupation.

The trial will be held until February 26. After that, the judge is estimated to need several months to consider before issuing an advisory opinion.

Although Israel has ignored those opinions in the past, this could increase political pressure over the ongoing war in Gaza, which has killed nearly 29,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, since October 7.

The hearing is part of Palestinian efforts to require international legal agencies to examine Israel's actions, which have become more pressing since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, which killed 1,200 people, and the Israeli military response.

This also comes amid growing concerns about Israel's ground attack on the city of Rafah in Gaza, the last shelter for more than one million Palestinians after they fled south of the enclave to avoid Israeli attacks.

It is known that Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, the historic Palestinian territories Palestinians wanted to make the country, in the 1967 war. They withdrew from Gaza in 2005, however, along with neighboring Egypt, still controls its borders.

This is the second time the UN General Assembly has requested the opinion of ICJ advisers, also known as the World Court, regarding the occupied Palestinian territories.

In July 2004, the court ruled that Israel's dividing wall in the West Bank violated international law and had to be dismantled, even though the wall was still standing today.

Judges are now required to review Israel's "residential, settlement and annexation, including actions aimed at changing the demographic composition, character and status of Jerusalem's Holy City, and the application of laws and discriminatory measures."

The General Assembly also asked the panel of 15 ICJ judges to advise on how these policies and practices affect "the status of the occupation law" and what legal consequences arise for all countries and the United Nations of this status.

It should be noted that the process of providing advisory opinion is separate from the genocide case brought by South Africa to the World Court against Israel for alleged violations of the 1948 Genocide Convention in Gaza.