Today, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest judicial body of the United Nations, is set to announce its advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967.

The Palestinian delegation to the session includes special envoy to President Mahmoud Abbas for international relations, Riyad al-Maliki, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Omar Awadallah, Ambassador Ammar Hijazi for multilateral affairs, Palestine's representative to UN specialized organizations in Geneva, Ibrahim Khreisheh, Ambassador to the Netherlands Rawan Sulaiman, and Ambassador Majed Bamya from Palestine's mission to New York. The delegation will hold a press conference immediately following the session outside the court.
The initiative stems from a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly's Fourth Committee on Political Affairs and Decolonization on November 11, 2022, requesting a legal opinion from the ICJ regarding "the legal consequences of Israel's continued violation of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination, its long-term occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967, including settlement and annexation measures, aimed at altering the demographic composition, character, and status of Jerusalem, and the impact of Israel's policies and practices on the legal status of the occupation and the legal consequences thereof for all states and the United Nations."
The court began deliberations on the matter on February 26 last year, hearing arguments and presentations over a week from Palestine and 49 UN member states, including South Africa, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Russia, France, Gambia, Guyana, Hungary, China, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Libya.
Arguments were also presented by Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mauritius, Namibia, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Indonesia, Qatar, the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Zambia, Spain, Maldives, Fiji, Comoros, and three international organizations: the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the African Union, and the Arab League.
The ICJ's advisory opinion comes amid increasing international legal pressures on Israel, the occupying power, over its ongoing military aggression in Gaza and its continuous atrocities in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.