Pakistan calls for Israeli occupation end, settlement reversal at International Court of Justice

Pakistan's Interim Law Minister Ahmed Irfan Aslam speaks at the public hearing held by The International Court of Justice to allow parties to give their views on the legal consequences of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories before eventually issuing a non-binding legal opinion in The Hague on February 23, 2024. (Photo courtesy: Screengrab/UN Web TV)

• The country’s interim law minister tells the court Israel is seeking annexation of Palestinian lands through military action
• He recalls how France withdrew a million settlers from Alegria in 1962 who were more numerous and better established

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan called for an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories on Friday at the advisory proceedings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in which several other states have also participated in recent days.
The country’s legal position over the issue was presented by its interim law minister, Ahmed Irfan Aslam, who said the ICJ proceedings inspired hope since it provided the world the opportunity to develop jurisprudence and to advance essential principles of international law that preserved and upheld basic human dignity.
The Pakistani minister noted it had been the United Nations stated position not to condone legal changes to a territory as a result of military action. He reminded the court the UN had also asked Israel to withdraw its forces from from all the territories it had invaded in the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six Day War.
However, he maintained Israel’s policy was not just to occupy but annex the Palestinian lands.
“Israel’s occupation is no longer, if it ever was, the military occupation. It is annexation,” the minister said.
“This may have been the intention all along,” he continued. “[Israel’s first] Prime Minister [David] Ben Gurion affirmed in 1950 that ‘the Israeli empire must comprise all the territories between the Nile and the Euphrates.’ And this was to be achieved as much by invasion as by diplomacy.”
Aslam said Israel’s current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had also declared his government would its sovereignty over all the communities formed by moving Jewish settlers to Palestinian lands.
He maintained Israel had created “irreversible facts on the ground” by following its settlement policy to make it as difficult as possible to end its prolonged occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
However, he pointed out the world had dealt with such problems in the past in other contexts while specifically mentioning the French government’s withdrawal of a million settlers from Algeria in 1962.
“France’s settlements in Algeria were not only more numerous they were also far older and better established than Israel’s West Bank colonies,” he continued.
The Pakistani law minister sought the reversal of the policy while saying: “Israel’s occupation is unlawful and unlawfulness must have consequences.”
The ICJ proceedings have come at a point when Israel has been accused of carrying out the genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza.
It besieged the territory and launched airstrikes after a surprise attack was initiated by Hamas on Oct. 7 in response to the deteriorating condition of Palestinian people living under Israeli occupation.
The Palestinian death toll in the war has almost 30,000, with most victims of the conflict being women and children.