ECAJ statement on ICJ advisory opinion on Israel’s presence in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry, the peak national body of the Aus­trali­an Jewish community, is appalled by the advisory opinion issued by the Inter­na­tion­al Court of Justice (ICJ) on 19 July 2024 con­cern­ing Israel’s presence in the ter­rit­or­ies of the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

“Nowhere in its 83 pages is there a single reference to the repeated attempts by neigh­bour­ing states to eradicate Israel and wipe out its Jewish pop­u­la­tion, an ambition still openly pro­claimed by the present criminal regime in Iran” said ECAJ President Daniel Aghion.

“The ICJ glosses over the fact that when Israel came into pos­ses­sion of the ter­rit­or­ies of the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the course of the Six Day War in 1967, it was as a result of Israel’s neigh­bours massing troops on its border with those ter­rit­or­ies and openly threat­en­ing its anni­hil­a­tion.”

“In con­clud­ing that Israel has an oblig­a­tion to bring an end to its presence in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, the ICJ ignores the lesson of history, which is that uni­lat­er­al with­draw­al from territory is suicidal in the face of enemies who are determ­ined to eradicate you and your country”, Mr Aghion said.

“Far from creating a pathway to peace, it is an incentive to further war and bloodshed. This is precisely what happened after Israel withdrew uni­lat­er­ally from Gaza in 2005. For this reason, Palestini­an statehood can only be sustained in the context of a nego­ti­ated peace agreement between Israel and the Palestini­ans, not through a diktat of the ICJ or any other external body.”

Mr Aghion also excor­i­ated the ICJ for blaming Israel for the failure of the Palestini­ans to achieve Statehood. “The ICJ is silent not only about the ongoing rejec­tion­ist attitude of the Palestini­an leaders towards Israel but also about their perennial violence, cor­rup­tion and incom­pet­ence. One cannot simply airbrush from the record their rejection of repeated offers made by Israel for a com­pre­hens­ive peace agreement that would have included the estab­lish­ment of a Palestini­an State covering the whole of the Gaza Strip and an area equal in size to the West Bank, together with a capital in east Jerusalem.”

“The ICJ has been men­dacious and reckless In its attempt to rewrite history and minimise the ongoing threats to Israel’s existence”. Mr Aghion concluded. “Thank­fully the Advisory Opinion is not legally binding. It deserves to follow the ICJ’s 2004 advisory opinion in the so-called “Wall” case into obscurity and irrel­ev­ance.”