Israel desperately urges allies to help stop Palestine’s ICJ bid at UN: Report

Israel has turned to its global allies in desperation, urging them to help stop a Palestinian bid at the United Nations for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the Tel Aviv regime’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

In a letter on Tuesday, Israeli prime minister, Yair Lapid, urged 50 heads of state, including those of the UK and France, to pressure the Palestinian Authority and prevent it from promoting a relevant resolution passed at the General Assembly in November, according to a report by Reuters.

The resolution, approved by a UN committee, asks the ICJ to “urgently” weigh in on Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory,” which it said were violating the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

In his letter, Lapid voiced concerns that the resolution could “discredit” the regime’s “security concerns” and “delegitimize” its “very existence.”

He added that the disputed territory status should be subject to direct negotiations between Israel and Palestine, and that bringing the matter before the ICJ “will only play into the hands of extremists.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Lapid’s struggles were “doomed to fail.”

Nabil Abu Rudeineh added, “We are confident world leaders who always stood by our just cause will not retreat from their positions.”

198 organizations call on ICC to investigate Israeli crimes against Palestinians

98 Palestinian and international organizations call on the International Criminal Court to investigate Israeli crimes and for public condemnation.

In a similar development on Monday, 198 Palestinian and international organizations called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate increasing Israeli crimes against Palestinians.

Moreover, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates urged the UN to adopt measures to protect the population of the occupied territories from the increase of Israeli attacks.

In a statement it issued, the ministry called to pressure Israeli apartheid authorities in order to stop the violence of the Israeli army forces and the settlers, saying “these violations amount to war crimes and are within the framework of the official escalation of Israeli aggression against our people and their rights.”

Since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds, the regime has built more than 250 illegal settlements where more than 600,000 Israelis live.

All the settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.

The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion.

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