It has been 136 days of Israel's relentless military campaign against Gaza, and with that in the background, hearings began yesterday at the ICJ into the legality of Israel's occupation of Palestine. The hearings - which will see 52 states and three organizations present arguments - were brought after the UN General Assembly passed a resolution to seek the ICJ's opinion on the matter. And Belize is one of those 52 states.
And today, Belizean-Palestinian Assad Shoman, Professor Phillipa Webb, and Attorney Ben Juratowich presented on behalf of Belize. Shoman opened up the presentation discussing how Israel has been violating the rights of Palestinians to self-determination for decades. Here's a snippet of his speech.
Assad Shoman, Belizean/Palestinian
"First, the exclusion of Palestinians from any part of the Palestinian territory denies their right to territorial integrity which is an essential part of the right to self-determination. The Palestinian people have the right to self-determination within the entirety of their territory. Yet Israel has systematically removed and excluded Palestinians from parts of their territory, it has separated Gaza from the West Bank and prevented the free movement of Palestinians within the Palestinian territory. It has prohibited the return of Palestinians to their home and property and established exclusionary illegal settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem."
"Second, Israel denies the existence of Palestinians as a people. The Israeli Minister of Finance, himself an illegal settler, has stated that there's no such thing as a Palestinian people. Senior Israeli leaders routinely deny that the Palestinian people have a right to self-determination. Moreover, the case brought by South Africa, which Belize fully supports, lays bare the fact that Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza also denies Palestinians the right to exist at all. One key tactic in this regard is Israel deliberate use of starvation to destroy the civilian population of Gaza. Gaza's entire population of more than 2 million people is in crisis facing the worse levels of acute food insecurity."
"Third, Israel is using forcible action to deprive the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination, freedom and complete independence. This includes the right of the Palestinian people freely to determine without external interference their political status and to pursue their economic, social and cultural development. Israel's forcible action that denies the right to self-determination consists of institutional, coercive policies and practices that exert authority over and oppress the Palestinian people. These include the complete control exercised over Palestinian natural and economic resources, the institutionalized and racist apartheid and the systemic and excessive use of force, arbitrary killing and mass incarceration."
"Israel must immediately, unconditionally, and totally withdraw from all of the Palestinian territory."
The hearings will end on February 26th. This case is separate from South Africa's case at the ICJ accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
