The Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas on Friday both welcomed the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which stated that Israel has illegally occupied Judea and Samaria and annexed Jerusalem.
In a statement, PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ office declared the ICJ's ruling as “a triumph for justice, affirming that the Israeli occupation is illegal.”
It “urged the international community to compel Israel, the occupying power, to fully and immediately end its occupation and colonial project without conditions or exceptions.”
Abbas’ office said it “viewed the ICJ decision as a reaffirmation of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination, their land, and their statehood. It added that the ruling underscores the rejection of Israeli occupation, the recent Israeli Knesset decisions, and US policies supporting Israeli occupation and rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
It called upon the UN General Assembly and the Security Council “to explore additional measures to put an end to Israel's illegitimate presence in the occupied Palestinian territories.”
Hamas, in a statement of its own, called for "immediate" international action to end “Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories” after the top UN court ruled it was illegal.
The statement welcomed the ICJ ruling and said it puts "the international system before the imperative of immediate action to end the occupation".
The Foreign Ministry said earlier that Israel rejects the ruling, adding, “Unfortunately, the Court’s opinion is fundamentally wrong. It mixes politics and law. It injects the politics of the corridors of the UN in New York into the courtrooms of the ICJ in The Hague.”
President Isaac Herzog said in a statement that he “rejected outright the one-sided and ill-judged advisory opinion of the ICJ.”
“Their words undermine the entire notion of the process of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. It also blatantly ignores the Jewish people’s historic connection to the Land of Israel and our eternal capital, Jerusalem,” added Herzog.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)