Palestine mulling taking Israeli occupation to International Court of Justice

By Betul Yuruk

UNITED NATIONS (AA) - Palestine is considering taking Israel's permanent occupation to the International Court of Justice, said its envoy on Friday.

"What would you do if your country was occupied, if your land was stolen, if your people were oppressed?" Riyad Mansour told the UN Security Council. "Help us to live. You are the Security Council. Endorse that option, help us to live".

Mansour said that if the UN Security Council is unwilling to support the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, it is the responsibility of the General Assembly to refer the matter to the International Court of Justice.

"Let us ask the most authoritative body in the world to make a determination. Let us go to the International Court of Justice and let it make a factual and legal determination. Is this a temporary occupation or a permanent annexation?" he asked.

UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland sounded alarm by the intensity of violence in the occupied West Bank in his briefing to the Security Council.

"The security situation in the occupied West Bank is caught in a downward spiral. Too many people, overwhelmingly Palestinian, have been killed and injured in daily violence," he said. "Decades of violence and its toll on both Israelis and Palestinians, as well as a prolonged absence of meaningful negotiations and a failure to resolve the key issues fueling the conflict have created fertile ground for this dynamic."

Separate areas of the West Bank have witnessed a noticeable escalation and an increase in the pace of Israeli forces' operations since the beginning of 2022.