Jonathan Lis
Haaretz, Nov. 13, 2022
“Israel must not cooperate with the process in the court in The Hague, because it must not legitimize a distorted legal process in a court whose judges were selected politically by countries that are mostly hostile to Israel.”
Sources in Israel have said that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank will almost certainly be referred to the International Court of Justice in The Hague for its opinion, following a draft resolution passed by a special UN committee on decolonization.
The General Assembly is expected to pass the resolution by a solid majority when it meets in two weeks, and it is considered unlikely at the moment that the countries that submitted the draft resolution will withdraw it at the last minute. Efforts by Israel and the United States to pressure Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to retract the proposal have failed. A phone call by Israel’s President Isaac Herzog with Abbas on Friday at the request of Prime Minister Yair Lapid failed to dissuade Abbas.
The moment the PA decided to bring the matter to a vote before the special committee, Israel realized it could not stop it from passing. Instead, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, worked together with the U.S. delegation to expand the coalition of countries that would vote against or abstain when the matter reaches the ICJ in The Hague.
Two countries disappointed Israel in this regard: Ukraine, which voted for the Palestinian proposal, despite Israel’s vote in favor of Ukraine with regard to the Russian assault, and Britain, which abstained. Allies including Australia, Canada, Germany and Italy voted against the proposal. … SOURCE