SAJFP: Support the resolution to end Israel’s illegal occupation now!
18 September 2024
South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) calls on all States represented at the United Nations General Assembly to vote in support of the draft resolution that has been tabled, which is intended to implement the findings made by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its Advisory Opinion on Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territories. In this opinion, Israel was found to be in violation of Article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, particularly in its continued unlawful presence in the so-called occupied Palestinian territories.
According to the court, Israel is under an obligation to bring this presence to an end ‘as rapidly as possible’ and all States and international organisations, including the United Nations, are under an obligation ‘not to recognize as legal the situation arising from’ Israel’s unlawful presence and ‘not to render aid or assistance in maintaining [it]’. The ICJ further found that the UN – specifically the Security Council and the General Assembly, which requested the opinion – should advise on the exact steps to end Israel’s illegal occupation.
The draft resolution, which will be put to a vote in the 193-member UN General Assembly this week, places a 12-month deadline on Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories. The resolution further calls for the imposition of trade and military sanctions on Israel; the prevention, prohibition and eradication of Israel’s international law violations as identified in the ICJ’s opinion; and the imposition of sanctions on complicit individuals and entities.
Despite the draft resolution’s limited scope, which has been highlighted by the Palestinian BDS National Committee, it represents an important step towards ending the system of apartheid between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Indeed, while UN resolutions did not bring an end to apartheid in South Africa on their own, they played a significant role in placing pressure on States to impose economic, cultural and academic boycotts on the apartheid regime.