Cuba joins legal demand against Israel
The International Court of Justice is asked to rule and to promote peace
Today, February 15, 2024, Anayansi Rodríguez Camejo, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, made a declaration to the press with respect to Cuba’s participation in the hearing of the International Court of Justice, to be held in The Hague, Netherlands, from February 19 to 26, 2024.
The Declaration refers to the UN General Assembly resolution of December 30, 2022 (more than a year ago), in which the Assembly asked the Court to rule on the legal ramifications of Israel’s policies and practices with respect to the Palestinian people. The Declaration noted that on July 25, 2023, Cuba submitted a legal brief to the Court demanding a clear and direct pronouncement with respect to the legal consequences of the acts of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity that the Palestinian people have suffered at the hands of Israel. The Declaration states that the Palestinian people have been denied their right to self-determination for seventy years, and they have been subjected to “a policy of permanent and low-intensity genocide.” The Declaration also condemns the complicity of the United States, in that it prevents action by the UN Security Council, thus granting Israel impunity.
I would like to point out that, in spite of its strong language of condemnation, the Declaration does not in any way raise questions concerning the right of Israel to exist as a state and a people. Indeed, it concludes with a reiteration of the long-standing demand put forth by many states and organizations for a permanent and lasting solution based on the creation of two States with pre-1967 borders.
I provide here an English translation of the Declaration in its entirety.
On February 21, Cuba will participate in the hearing of the International Court of Justice as part of the process requested by the United Nations General Assembly, through its resolution A/RES/77/247 of December 30, 2022, entitled "Israeli settlement practices and activities affecting the rights of the Palestinian people and other Arab inhabitants of the occupied territories", requesting the issuance of an Advisory Opinion to the International Court of Justice, in accordance with Article 96 of the Charter of the United Nations and Article 65 of the Statute of the Court.
Specifically, the Court has been asked to rule on the legal consequences of Israel's practices and policies against the Palestinian people, including the resulting legal responsibility for all States and for the United Nations.
As part of this process, on July 25, 2023, the Republic of Cuba submitted a legal brief to the Court demanding a clear and direct pronouncement establishing all the legal consequences that derive from genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the Apartheid regime that the Palestinian People have suffered for years at the hands of Israel, the occupying power.
For more than 70 years, the Palestinian people have been denied their right to self-determination and have been subjected to a policy of permanent and low-intensity genocide, the aim of which is the clear extermination of their population. That policy has had particularly dramatic moments, such as the current one, where hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women, the elderly, and humanitarian personnel, are cruelly murdered.
All this is happening not only through the practices and policies of Israel, as the illegitimately occupying Power of the Palestinian territories, but with the complicity of some Powers which, like the United States of America, guarantee impunity to Israel and prevent any effective action by the United Nations system. Said government, with its anti-democratic veto, has obstructed the functioning of the Security Council as the principal UN organ responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security.
Only in this manner can it be explained why Israel has for decades systematically violated and continues to violate international treaties and decisions that call for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East region and for respect for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.
A comprehensive, just, and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is urgently needed, based on the creation of two States, which would enable the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination and to have an independent and sovereign State with the pre-1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital, and that guarantees the right of return of the refugees.
Once again, the International Court of Justice will be called upon to contribute through its decisions to international justice and peace. To this end, Cuba maintains that both Israel and its accomplices must be declared legally responsible under current international law for the genocide that the Palestinian people have experienced for decades and are experiencing today in a very aggravated way.
We ratify, as Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez has reiterated, that Cuba will never be among the indifferent. It is with this feeling and conviction that we go to this hearing at the International Court of Justice.
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