Netanyahu led a chorus of condemnation of the UN court’s ruling (File)
Jerusalem:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the International Court of Justice made a “decision of lies” on Friday by ruling Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories illegal.
Netanyahu led a chorus of condemnation of the UN court’s ruling from conservative, far-right and even centrist politicians in Israel.
“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), Netanyahu said in a statement.
“No decision of lies in The Hague will distort this historical truth, and similarly, the legality of Israeli settlements in all parts of our homeland cannot be disputed.”
Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right national security minister and an outspoken champion of Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, said: “The decision in The Hague proves yet again – this is a blatantly anti-Semitic and political organisation.
“We will not accept moral preaching from them,” the minister said in comments sent to AFP by a spokesperson.
Ben Gvir called for Israel to seek “sovereignty” of the occupied territories through annexation.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich too called for steps towards annexation of the West Bank, posting on social media platform X: “The answer to The Hague – sovereignty now.”
Centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid criticised the court’s ruling, calling it “disconnected, one-sided, tainted with anti-Semitism and lacking an understanding of the reality on the ground”.
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