EU backs ICJ ruling on ‘illegal’ Israeli occupation

The top UN court's ruling that Israel's 57-year occupation of Palestinian land was "illegal" is "largely consistent with EU positions", the bloc's foreign policy chief said on Saturday.

The sweeping opinion on Friday by The Hague-based International Court of Justice — which called for the occupation to end as soon as possible — was immediately slammed as a "decision of lies" by Israel.

But the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs said that the bloc had taken "good note" of the court's ruling and urged further backing for the court's opinion.

"In a world of constant and increasing violations of international law, it is our moral duty to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to all ICJ decisions in a consistent manner, irrespective of the subject in question," Josep Borrell said.

He added in a statement that the opinion "will need to be analysed more thoroughly, including in view of its implications for EU policy".

The ICJ's ruling is not binding, but it comes amid mounting concern over the death toll and destruction in Israel's war against Hamas sparked by the group's brutal October 7 attacks, as well as increased tensions in the West Bank.

Lawyers at The Hague-based International Court of Justice. File photo

Its intervention is likely to increase diplomatic pressure on Israel over the war in Gaza, as will the EU's backing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the ruling.

"The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land -- not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, nor in our ancestral heritage of Judea and Samaria" (the occupied West Bank), he said in a statement.

In June 1967, Israel seized the then-Jordan-annexed West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt in a crushing six-day war against its Arab neighbours.

It then began to settle the 70,000 square kilometres (27,000 square miles) of seized Arab territory.

The UN later declared the occupation of Palestinian territory illegal, and Cairo regained the Sinai under its 1979 peace deal with Israel.

Agence France-Presse