Norway wants ICJ clarification on Israel's obligation to Palestinians under international law

Ahram Online , Wednesday 30 Oct 2024

Norway is asking for clarification from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Israel’s responsibility under international law when preventing the United Nations, international humanitarian organizations and states from helping Palestinians.

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FILE - Israeli soldiers take a position as they storm the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza. AP

 

“The international community cannot accept that the UN, international humanitarian organizations and states face systematic obstacles to being able to work in Palestine and provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians under occupation,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said Wednesday, as reported by AP.

“It undermines the Palestinians’ right to vital aid. Then we have to react.”

The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, also known as UNRWA, provides essential services to millions of Palestinians across the Middle East and has underpinned aid efforts in Gaza throughout the Israeli war.

Legislation barring it from operating in Israel passed with an overwhelming majority Monday. Israel claimed, without evidence, that UNRWA has allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas.

UNRWA denies the allegations, and a UN investigation said the agency is committed to neutrality and acts quickly to address any wrongdoing by its staff.

Norway has called for a resolution in the UN General Assembly asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) “to give an advisory opinion on the duties of Israel as an occupying power to facilitate aid to the population of Palestine.” Gahr Støre added that a number of countries, in addition to UNRWA, have expressed support for the initiative.

Under international law, Israel has an obligation to help the Palestinian population under occupation, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said.

The UN views Gaza as Israeli-occupied territory, along with the West Bank and Jerusalem and international law requires an occupying power to agree to relief programs for people in need and to facilitate them "by all the means at its disposal." 

“With this initiative, Norway wants to establish that no country can rise above its obligations under international law,” Barth Eide said.

“We see similar trends in other countries — that leaders try to undermine humanitarian law and aid work in situations of crisis and conflict. We must stop this development.”

"No country is above international law," Eide stressed.

He said that Israel also undermines the stability of the entire Middle East.

"Israel’s behavior contravenes international law and undermines efforts to establish a viable Palestinian state and the two-state solution."

"UNRWA must survive," he added.

UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini announced on Wednesday that following the Knesset's adoption of bills, he wrote to the President of the UN General Assembly that UNRWA’s ability to implement its mandate was under threat.

"These bills will not terminate the refugee status of the Palestinians, which exists independently of UNRWA’s service provision. They will severely harm their lives and future," Lazzarini said on X.

"Today, even as we look into the faces of children in Gaza, some of whom we know will die tomorrow," he said, warning that the "rules-based international order is crumbling in a repetition of the horrors that led to the establishment of the United Nations, and in violation of commitments to prevent their recurrence"

Lazzarini urged member states of the General Assembly to take action to support UNRWA commensurate with the gravity of the situation and risks. 

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