Mr. Éamonn Meehan:

I thank the committee for inviting us to meet it today. The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal. The ICJ clearly also recognises that Gaza is part of occupied Palestinian territory. That is, it is unlawfully occupied by Israel. The ruling of the ICJ applies to Gaza as much as to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The destruction of Gaza is not some separate action divorced from Israel's policies and practices in the West Bank. It is fully aligned with those policies and practices and follows years of blockade.

In 2024, the ICJ also awarded provisional measures against Israel in the case brought by South Africa to protect Palestinians from the plausible denial of their rights as protected under the Genocide Convention. Israel has blatantly ignored these measures. The ICJ is also very clear, in paragraph 105 of its ruling of 19 July 2024, that an occupation must be managed for the benefit of the local Palestinian population. This is absolutely central to the ICJ judgment and to everything that flows from it. An occupation in international humanitarian law must be managed for the benefit of the local population. Clearly, there is no place throughout occupied Palestinian territory where this is the case.

We have heard on many occasions that an advisory opinion from the ICJ is not legally binding. Advisory opinion is the mechanism through which the UN General Assembly seeks advice and clarification from the ICJ. The law, written and drafted by the ICJ, is not new. There is no new law here. What it has done, in the most authoritative fashion, is clarified what the international law is. This is from where our obligations here stem. In our view this is legally binding.