“It is time to put an end to the double standard in the treatment of the Palestinian issue,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs when speaking before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which began its public hearings on Monday on the legal consequences derived from the Israeli occupation.

Al-Maliki called on the ICJ to support “the right of our people to self-determination”, which he considered imprescriptible and non-negotiable. “The genocide committed against our people in the Gaza Strip is the result of decades of immunity from the occupying power,” said the diplomat, who called for an end to the occupation.

The FM highlighted the need to support the path of peace, which involves achieving “justice for the Palestinian people, to whom Israel left only three options: displacement, arrest or death”, which is equivalent to ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide, he stressed.

“A Palestinian can spend his entire life as a refugee without being denied dignity and the right to return home (…) under constant threat, having his loved ones encarcerated in an Israeli prison and held there indefinitely, and their lands are stolen, colonized and annexed,” he said, and urged the court to declare the Israeli occupation illegal and end it “immediately, totally and unconditionally.”

The initiation of the public hearings is part of a case that precedes the recent lawsuit filed by South Africa for genocide in Gaza and requests the court’s opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories.

The UN General Assembly decided to re-present the case in December 2022, with 87 countries voting in favor, 26 against, and 53 abstentions.

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