Brazil joins call for ICJ to declare Israel’s occupation of Palestine illegal

The International Court of Justice building, in The Hague. Photo: Aperture Exposure Images/Shutterstock

Brazil on Tuesday joined other countries in asking judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to declare Israel’s occupation of Palestine illegal.

Councilor Maria Clara de Paula Tusco, a career diplomat and head of Brazil’s UN division at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, reiterated Brazil’s position that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, “persisting since 1967,” violates international law and “numerous” General Assembly and Security Council resolutions.

“From Brazil’s perspective, the current request (…) could not be more timely,” Ms. Tusco said. “Brazil would appreciate it if the court (…) could highlight the principled position that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories violates the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.”

The ICJ began hearing arguments in the case on Monday, following a resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly in late 2022.

The text was voted 87-26 with 53 abstentions, and one of its clauses requested the ICJ to provide an advisory opinion on two questions, namely the “legal consequences arising from ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination” and how Israel’s policies and practices “affect the legal status of the occupation.” Brazil, then in the final days of the far-right Jair Bolsonaro administration, abstained.

The ICJ hearings are scheduled to last six days, ending on February 26.

This week’s hearings are unrelated to South Africa’s Brazil-supported genocide charges against Israel at the ICJ, a separate case filed only late last year after Israel’s response to the latest Hamas terror attack in October.

Last month, the ICJ judges did not rule on whether Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, but ruled that Israel must “take all measures within its power” to prevent violations of the Genocide Convention and to “prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide.”

Last Sunday, at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva compared Israel’s ongoing operations in Gaza to “when Hitler decided to kill the Jews,” leading to an escalating diplomatic conflict between Brazil and Israel.