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fby
Statement issued by the State of Kuwait to the International Court of
Justice on the I al conse uences arlsln from the olicies and
the Israeli occupatioL in the Palestinian tenitories since
1967.
The State of Kuwait, out of its solemn commitment to the UN Charter and
the rule of international law as the comerstone for the achievement of
intemational peace and security, and of its belief in the role of the United
Nations in this regard and its permanent responsibility towards the question
of Palestine until it is resolved in all its aspects in a satisfactory manner in
accordance with intemational law,l and of its commitment to the
resolutions issued by the United Nations Security Council and the United
Nations General Assembly and the Advisory Opinion issued by the
Intemational Court of Justice on 9 July 2004, ar,d to the right of peoples to
self-determination and to the territorial integrity and political independence
of States, and in view of the importance the State of Kuwait attaches to the
Palestinian question, as well as its longstanding and unyielding solidarity
with, and support to, the Palestinian people, their inalienable rights and
their just cause, submits this Statement in accordance with the Court's
Order dated 3 February 2023 perlaining to Legal Consequences arising
from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory, including East Jerusalem.
I United Nations Ceneral Assembly Resolution 77122 (30 November 2022):"
I
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l. The State of Kuwait recalls that the historical injustice endured by the
Palestinian people find its origins in the diversion of the Mandate system
to the detriment of the Palestinian people and their right to selfdetermination,
the partition of their land without their consent and the 1948
Nakba (catastrophe) that ensued, as hundreds ofthousands ofPalestinians
were forcibly displaced and their land unlawfully appropriated by the
military conquest pursued by Zionist militias. In June 1967,the remaining
22Yo of histodc Palestine was occupied by Israeli forces and remain under
colonial occupation to this day.
2. The State of Kuwait considers that the Israeli occupation has sought to
consolidate and make permanent its long-term occupation of Palestinian
territory by various illegal means, including through colonization and the
annexation ofPalestinian territory it has occupied since 1967, by the forced
displacement ofthe Palestinian people and the confiscation oftheir lands
and demolishing their homes, and by the illegal transfer of Israeli settlers
and the measures aiming at altering the demographic composition of the
Holy City of Jerusalem, its character and status, including by the
construction of the annexation wall and its adoption of discriminatory
legislation and measures, all of which constitute a flagrant violation of
intemational law and relevant United Nations resolutions.
3. Israeli actions in the Palestinian tenitory constitute the illegal use of force
to perpetuate the occupation and undermine the right of the Palestinian
people to self-determination and the independence of the State ofPalestine
and affect all aspects oflife ofthe Palestinian people.
4. The State of Kuwait has always flatly rejected any use of force or the threat
of use of force in intemational relations and has always affirmed the
2
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importance of respecting the independence and sovereignty of states and
to ensure the protection of civilians.
5. The State of Kuwait therefore condemns Israeli use of force as a means of
imposing and maintaining its control in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
in flagrant violation of paragraph (4) of Article of the United Nations
Charter, which states that "The Organization and its Members, in pursuit
of the Purposes stated in Articlel, shall act in accordance with the
following principles:-
4) "All Members shall refrain in their intemational relations from
the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political
independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with
the Purposes of the United Nations."
6. The Israeli occupying Power illegal use of force in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory violates the right of the Palestinian people to selfdetermination,
as per paragraph (2) of Article (l) of the United Nations
Charter, which states that the Purposes of the United Nations are, inter alia:
"To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the
principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take
other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace".
7. In the remainder of this Statement, the State of Kuwait will address two of
the issues arising from the Request for an Advisory Opinion submitted to
the Court by the General Assembly in resolution 771247 of 30 December
2022, namely;
J
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What are the legal consequences arising from Israeli measures
aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and
status of the Holy City of Jerusalem?
What are the legal consequences arising from the prolonged
lsraeli occupation, colonization and annexation of Palestinian
territory, including with respect to the denial of the right of
the Palestinian people of self-determination?
11.
I. What are the legal consequences arising from Israeli measures aimed at
altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City
of Jerusalem?
8. The unique legal, political and spiritual status of Jerusalem has been a
special concem of the intemational community for centuries and for the
United Nations since its establishment. Accordingly, the United Nations
has a permanent responsibility for ensuring and protecting the special
status of Jerusalem. Any legal or political steps taken by the occupying
Power, in breach of the special and universal status of the Holy City of
Jerusalem, or to annex the territory of Jerusalem, are contrary to
intemational law and long-standing resolutions of the United Nations.
9. The annexation of West Jerusalem in 1949, and of East Jerusalem
following the 1967 war, are illegal, and therefore null and void. The State
of Kuwait notes that, 43 years ago, the United Nations Security Council
criticized in no uncertain terms("strongly deplores", "gravely concemed",
"flagrant violation", "must be rescinded forthwith", "serious obstruction",
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"urgently recalls", "desist fonhwith", "non-compliance", "censures in the
strongest terms", "serious obstruction", "decides not to recognize")2 the
Israeli illegal annexation ofJerusalem inthe face ofuniversal intemational
opinion and for flagrantly deSing the many decisions and directions of the
United Nations up to that point in time. In the years since then, the
occupying Power has not only continued to disobey all of the decisions and
directions ofthe United Nations with respect to Jerusalem, it has intensified
its efforts to deepen the illegal annexation of the City and to attempt to
make permanent its illegal claim of sovereignty.
l0.The United Nations was clear from the early days following the June 1967
war that any steps taken by the occupying Power, to annex Jerusalem or
any other part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, would be contrary to
intemational law and opposed by the United Nations. In United Nations
General Assembly resolutions 2253 (4 July 1967)3 and 2254 (14 July
196T4, the intemational community unanimously rejected the Israeli
annexation of East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank adjacent to it. The
Israeli occupying Power refused to comply with these resolutions and
directions and has proceeded to establish demographic, structural and
I United Nations Security Council Resolution 476 (30 June 1980); United Nations Security Council Resolution
478 (20 August 1980).
I "The General Assembly, deeply concemed at the situation prevailing in Jerusalem as a result of the measures
taken by Israel to change the status of the City, considers that these measures are invalid, calls upon lsrael to
rescind all measures already taken and to desist forthwith fiom taking action which would alter the status of
Jerusalem..."
4 *The General Assembly, recalling its resolution 2243 of4 July l967...taking note with the deepest regret and
concem ofthe non-compliance by lsrael with resolution 2253, deplores the failure of lsrael to implement Ceneral
Assembly resolution 2253, reiterales its call to lsrael in that resolution to rescind all measures already taken and
to desist forthwith fiom taking any action which would later the status of Jerusalem. . . "
5
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institutional facts on the ground meant to solidifu its purportedly
permanent sovereignty claim.
ll.The United Nations, by Security Council resolution 2334 (2016) and
General Assembly resolution 771126 (2022), has recently reaffirmed these
decisions and declarations establishing the illegality of the Israeli
annexation of Jerusalem.
l2.The State of Kuwait submits that the occupying Power must be directed to:
(i) immediately, fully and unconditionally end its annexation of Jerusalem,
(ii) preserve, protect and honour the special and unique status ofthe Holy
City of Jerusalem and the historic status quo, (iii) recognize the Palestinian
right ofself-determination and sovereignty in al1 ofthe Palestinian territory
it occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem, (iv) strictly apply and obey
intemational law and the decisions and directions of the United Nations
with regards to the Holy City of Jerusalem.
II. What are the legal consequences arising from prolonged Israeli
occupation, colonization and annexation of Palestinian territory, including
with respect to the denial of the right of the Palestinian people of selfdetermination
?
l3.The State of Kuwait affirms the position of the United Nations and the
intemational community that Israeli colonization of East Jerusalem and the
rest of the West Bank by means of its transfer to these parts of the OPT of
more than 700,000 Israeli settlers, and its establishment of hundreds of
6
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settlements constitute a flagrant violation of international law and a
principal means by which it is exercising its objective to annex this territory
and exercise pefinanent sovereignty over it. The Israeli settlements are the
engine of the occupation, and its locomotive for achieving annexation of
the Palestinian territory.
s Peace Now )) PoDulation
6 See generally: United Nations Secretary General, "lsraeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
(A/77/493;3 October 2022)', United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "lsraeli Settlements in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory" (A/HRCl52176:, 15 March2023); United Nations Human Rights Council, "Report
of the Independent lntemational Fact-Finding Mission to Investigate the lmplications of the lsraeli Settlements"
A/HRCl22l63 (7 February 2013); and the regular reports of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory (http:ri w\^ $..ochaopt.org ).
7
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I 4.At the beginning of 2023, there were approximately 730,000 Israeli settlers
and more than 280 Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including
East Jerusalem.s Approximately 230,000 settlers are in East Jerusalem and
500,000 settlers are in the West Bank. Supporting these settlements are a
dense series of restricted highways, roadblocks, checkpoints, restricted
zones and Israeli military forces that constrict the lives, the security and
the economy of the Palestinians, and breach their fundamental human
rights.6
l5.The implantation of Israeli settlers and settlements is unquestionably
designed to establish permanent 'facts on the ground' and lay the legal and
political foundation for the occupying Power's illegal claim ofsovereignty.
The jurist Awn Al-Khasawneh, in a 1997 report on settler implantation,
population transfers and human rights commissioned by the United
Embassy of
the State of Kuwait
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Nations Commission on Human Rights in the 1990s, stated that: "The
range of human rights violated by population transfer and the implantation
of settlers place this phenomenon in the category of systematic or mass
violations of human rights."7 The United Nations Special Rapporteur
reported in202l that:
The objectives of the conquering power in implanting settlers have
been to solidify its political and military control, augment its
economic penetration, and ultimately bolster its legal claim to
permanent sovereignty over the subjugated lands. The transferred
settlers are almost always willing citizens or subjects of the
dominant power, motivated by govemment inducements, enhanced
economic prospects, special legal and political privileges in the
subjugated lands, and, on occasion, nationalist, religious or
civilizing missions."s
l6.Speaking through the United Nations, the intemational community has
long considered that these settlements to be a'flagrant violation" of the
Fourth Geneva Convention, and in particular Article 49, paragraph 6. This
provision specifically forbids the implantation of settlers into occupied
territories, so as to protect the sovereignty rights, natural resources and
human rights of the occupied people. Article 49, para. 6 states that:
The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own
civilian population into the territory it occupies.e
7 Report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory
occupied since 1967, A/HRC147l57 (29 Jrly 2021), at para.29.
8 tbid.
e Ceneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Aug. 12, 1949, 6 U.S.T. 3516,
75 U.N.T.S.287, Article 49. para.6.
8
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17.The Security Council has adopted several resolutions explicitly
condemning the Israeli settlements as contrary to intemational law.ro The
most recent ofthese resolutions is 2334, adopted on 23 December 2016,
which reaffirms that:
...the establishment lby the occupying Power] of settlements in the
Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem,
has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under
intemational law and a major obstacle to the achievement ofthe two-
State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace;
18.The Security Council demanded the occupying Power to "immediately and
completely cease all settlement activities", and it directed the UN Secretary
General to report to the Council every three months on the implementation
of the resolution. In each of his 26 quarterly reports to the Council since
the beginning of 2017 (up until J:une 2023), the Secretary General has
stated that the occupying Power has taken no action whatsoever to comply
with this mandatory demand, instead advancing more settlements.rr
l9.The General Assembly, for its part, has adopted more than 160 resolutions
since 1971, always by overwhelming majorities, stating that the Israeli
settlements are a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.l2 UNGA
r0 UNSC Res.446 (1979); UNSC Res.452 (1979); UNSC Res.465 (1980); UNSC Res.47l (1980); UNSC Res.
476 (1980); UNSC Res.478 (1980); UNSC Res.2334 (2016).
rr 5/2023/458 (21 lune 2023), at para.2: "ln its resolution 2334 (2016), the Security Council. . . reiterated its
demand that lsrael immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian
Tenitory, including East Jerusalem, and that it fully respect all of its legal obligations in that regard. No such steps
were taken during the reporting period as settlement activities continued."
12 The complete collection of the resolutions can be found at the United Nations website hrtD domino. ()rg
tlNlSPAL.NSF vCARes. While General Assembly resolutions do not normally have the force of law, the
repeated adoption ofa resolution by the UNGA throughout the years try overwhelming majorities can crystallize
into a legal rule.
9
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Res.771126, adopted in December 2022,is the latest resolution of the UN
General Assembly on the issue.l3 It states the following:
Affirming that the transfer by the occupying Power of parts of its
own civilian population into the territory it occupies constitutes a
breach ofthe Fourth Geneva Convention. . .
Condemning settlement activities by ...the occupying Power, in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, as
violations of international humanitarian law, relevant United
Nations resolutions, the agreements reached between the parties and
obligations under the Quartet road map and as actions in defiance of
the calls by the international community to cease all settlement
activities,
20. Peter Maurer, the President of the ICRC, stated the position of the
Committee on the legal status of the Israeli settlements in 2012:ra
One of the key features of the occupation is the Israeli govemment's
settlements policy. The ICRC's publicly stated position is that this
policy amounts to a violation of IHL, in particular the provision of
the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting the transfer of part of the
t0
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Reaffirms that the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian
Golan are illegal and an obstacle to peace and economic and social
development...
[Reaffirms]its demand that [the occupying Power] immediately and
completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian
territory, including East Jerusalem, and that it fully respect all of its
legal obligations in this regard;
13 IINGA Res. 77 /126 (12 December 2022).
ra Challenges to intemational humanitarian law: lsrael's occupation policy, Peter Maurer President of the
lnternational Committee ofthe Red Cross, Intemational Review ofthe Red Cros, Volume 94 Number 888 Winter
2012.
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the State of Kuwait
The Hague
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population of the Occupying Power - in this case Israeli citizens -
to the occupied territory._This provision aims to prevent the
Occupying Power from modifling the social, demographic, and
economic pattem of the occupied territory, against the interests of
the population living there. The Israeli govemment's decisive and
systematic support over the years to the establishment of
settlements, including by taking away land, has effectively achieved
just that: a profound alteration ofthe economic and social landscape
of the West Bank,. . . .
21.In December 2014, the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneya
Convention (HCP) met in Geneva with respect to the Israeli occupation of
the Palestinian Territory. In a statement issued on I 7 December 2014, HCP
referred to the Occupying Power, and said in paras. 4 and 8:
4. The participating High Contracting Parties emphasize the
continued applicability and relevance of the Fourth Geneva
Convention, which all High Contracting Parties have undertaken to
respect and to ensure respect for in all circumstances. As such, they
call on the Occupying Power to fully and effectively respect the
Fourth Geneva Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
including East Jerusalem. . .
8. They reaffirm the illegality of the settlements in the said territory
and of the expansion thereof and of related unlawful seizure of
property as well as of the transfer of prisoners into the territory of
the Occupying Power.15
22.In March 2023,the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
found that the Israeli settlements are not only illegal under intemational
It Conference of High Contracting Panies to the Fourth Geneva Convention Declaration, December 2014
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law, but they are also a war crime that may engage individual criminal
responsibility.r6 He stated that:
The establishment and expansion of settlements in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory and the occupied Syrian Golan, ... amount to
the transfer by [the occupying Power] of its own civilian population
into the territories it occupies, which is prohibited under
intemational humanitarian law, as consistently confirmed by the
competent United Nations organs, including the Intemational Court
of Justice. Such transfers amount to a war crime that may engage the
individual criminal responsibility of those involved.
23.The Israeli govemment was well aware of the categorical prohibition in
intemational law against civilian settlements the occupied Palestinian
territory within the early months following the June 1967 war. Theodor
Meron, the Legal Advisor to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the
time, provided a legal opinion in September 1967 to the Israeli govemment
respecting the legality of civilian settlements in occupied territory.
Reflecting in2017 on his legal advice 50 years prior, Meron stated that:
...the establishment of civilian settlements in the occupied West
Bank and other conquered territories violates the Founh Geneva
Convention related to the protection of victims of war and,
specifically, its prohibition on settlements (Article a9(6)). This
prohibition, I wrote, is categorical and "not conditioned on the
motives or purposes of the transfer, and is aimed at preventing
colonialization on conquered territory by citizens of the conquering
state." Any steps to place citizens in occupied land could only be
done "by military bodies and not civilian ones [on military] bases"
clearly temporary in nature. With respect to the position of the
govemment of Israel that the West Bank was disputed territory, and
therefore not 'occupied territory", I opined that this position had not
t6 AIHRC/52/76 (15 March 2023), at para. 58
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been accepted by the intemational community, which regards the
territory concemed as normal occupied territory. Israeli settlements
in the area of "Etzion Bloc" would be viewed as evidence of an
intent to annex that area, I warned.lT
24.The State of Kuwait submits that an occupying power which builds illegal
settlements in the occupied territory for the purposes of conquest and of
rupturing the essential link between the occupied people and its territory;
which serially defies clear and persistent resolutions by the leading organs
of the United Nations to immediately and unconditionally halt and reverse
all settlement development; and which continues to plan for hundreds of
thousands of new settlers in the occupied territory in the face ofuniversal
opposition, is unfaithful to the principles of the United Nations and in
flagrant breach of intemational law. The legal consequences for such
unlawful conduct must be the immediate, unconditional and complete
removal of all of the Israeli settler population.
25.Further, the State of Kuwait affirms the view that the occupation of a
territory by a belligerent occupying power is a temporary de facto situation
and it cannot be indefinite, let alone permanent. Under long established
rules of intemational law, the occupying power can neither claim
possession nor exercise its sovereignty over any part of the territory that it
occupies. As the distinguished intemational legal scholar Lassa
Oppenheim stated in 1917: "...everyone agrees that through military
17 L.F.L. Oppenheim, "The Legal Relations between an Occupying Power and lhe Inhabitants" (1917),33 Low
Quart er ly Rev iew 3 63 -4.
13
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occupation the authority over the territory and the inhabitants only defacto,
and not by right, and only temporarily, and not permanently, passes into
the hands ofthe occupant."rs
26.Accordingly, an occupying power cannot annex any part of the occupied
territory. In modem intemational law, this principle is found in Article 2,
paragraph 4 of the Charter of the United Nations;le and the 1970
Declaration of Principles of Intemational Law conceming Friendly
Relations and Cooperation among States.20 With respect to Israeli colonial
occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territory, the Security Council
specifically endorsed the principle of "the inadmissibility of the acquisition
of territory by war" in Resolution 242 in November 1967, and has
reaffirmed this principle on multiple occasions since.2r Any measures or
actions taken by the occupying Power to annex any parts of the territory,
whether formally proclaimed or not, whether de jure or de facto, are
absolutely prohibited under intemational law. The inadmissibility of
territorial acquisition of threat or use of force or war is a jus cogens norm
of intemational\aw.22
carnegietaan 9 , 2517 Kh The Hague, The Netherlands, Tel: (31-70) 312 3400 - Fax: (31-70) 365 8398
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'' lbid.
le Article 2, para. 4 ofthe Charter ofthe United Nations forbids its members from using "...the threat or use of
force against the territorial integrity or political independence ofany state."
20 "No territorial acquisition resulting fiom the threat or use offorce shall be recognized as legal."
rr See UN Security Council resolutions 252 (1968),267 (1969),298 ( l97l ), 476 ( 1980), 478 ( 1980), 497 ( l98l )
and 2334 (2016). I The serious ofthe "inadmissibility" principle in intemational law is highlighted by the designation ofannexation
as an act of aggress ion in lhe Rome Statute ofthe lnternational Criminal Court: Article 8 6rs (2Xa): "The invasion
or attack by the armed forces of a State of the tenitory of another State, or any military occupation, however
temporary, resulting ftom such invasion or attack, or any annexation by the use offorce ofthe terrtiory ofanother
Slale or part thereof' qualifies as an act ofaggression.
14
Embassy of
the State of Kuwait
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27 .The State of Kuwait thus stresses that Israeli occupation of Palestinian and
other Arab territories has been since its onset and to this day unlawful as it
was the result of military conquest and aimed at the acquisition of territory
by force. The State of Kuwait underlines in this regard that there should be
no double standards in upholding the UN Charter and the most
fundamental rules of intemational law, including the prohibition of the
acquisition of territory by force and the right of peoples to selfdetermination.
28.The State of Kuwait affirms the fundamental importance of Article 25 of
the Charter of the United Nations, which states that:
"The Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out
the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present
Charter."
29.The State of Kuwait recalls that the Court inthe Namibia Advisory Opinion
(1971) stated that, when a competent organ of the United Nations had
issued a binding decision on the illegality ofa situation, "such a situation
cannot remain without consequences". Member states of the United
Nations have "an obligation...to bring that situation to an end."23 And as
Judge Hirsh Lauterpacht stated in Voting Procedures (1955):24
23 Legal Consequences for Stotes of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Nanibia (South lltest Africa),
notwill8tanding Seclrity Council resolution 276 ( 1970), Advisory Opinion, ICJ Reports | 971,
2a Voting Procedures on Questions relqling lo Reports and Pelilions Concerning the Tetitory of Soulh West
Africa, Advisory Opinion, U9551t.C.J. Repons 67, at 120.
15
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"[A state] which consistently sets itself above the solemnly and
repeatedly expressed judgment of the [United Nations]
Organization, in particular in proportion as that judgment
approximates to unanimity, may find that it has overstepped the
imperceptible line between impropriety and illegality, between
discretion and arbitrariness, between the exercise of the legal right
to disregard the recommendation and the abuse of that right, and that
it has exposed itself to consequences legitimately following as a
legal sanction."
30.The State of Kuwait observes that the occupying Power is in direct breach
ofnumerous resolutions and decisions ofthe Security Council and General
Assembly, including Security Council resolution 476 (30 June 1980), in
which the Council:
l. "Reaffirm[ed] the overriding necessity for ending the
prolonged occupation of Arab territories occupied by Israel
since 1967, including Jerusalem;
2. Strongly deplorefd] the continued refusal of Israel, the
occupying Power, to comply with the relevant resolutions of
the Security Council and the General Assembly...;"
3l.The State of Kuwait asks the question: if there was an "overriding
necessity" in 1980 -- after l3 years ofoccupation -- to end the prolonged
occupation of Arab territories occupied since 1967, what are we to say
about this occupation 43 years later, when it has qualitatively deepened and
thickened its illegal presence? This has become a legal oxymoron: a
perrnanent occupation.
t6
carnegietaan g ,2517 Kh The Hague, The Netherlands, Tel: (31-70) 312 3400 - Fax: (31-70) 365 8398
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the State of Kuwait
The Hague
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32.And if the Security Council "strongly deplore[d]" the refusal of the
occupying Power to comply with the relevant resolutions of the United
Nations in 1980, what are we to say about Israeli violations over the
following 43 years of the resolutions adopted by the United Nations and
the intemational consensus? Israeli defiance of the hundreds of United
Nations resolutions adopted with respect to its unlawful occupation.
33.Accordingly, the State of Kuwait submits that the occupying Power has
breached the spectrum of legal duties and obligations required of an
occupying power when it administers another territory. Israeli occupation
is not temporary, but intended to be permanent and irreversible, a
prohibited act ofconquest. Its colonial occupation has actively engaged in
the annexation of occupied territory since the very beginning of the
occupation in 1967.It has consistently acted in bad faith and in conscious
defiance ofscores ofSecurity Council resolutions and hundreds of General
Assembly resolutions. It has breached its legal obligations, and instead
created a dual legal, social and political system with fulI political legal
rights to its settler population unlawfully transferred to the occupied
territory and a denial ofall basic rights to the protected population. This
dual legal system amounts to apartheid.
34. The State of Kuwait submits that the lsraeli occupation of Palestinian
territory must be condemned as an ongoing illegal situation and, as such, it
must be brought to a complete, immediate and unconditional end. With
robust parallels to the illegal mandate rule of apartheid South Africa over
17
carnegietaan 9 , 2517 Kh The Hague, The Netherlands, Tel: (31-70) 312 3400 - Fax: (31-70) 365 8398
Email : i nf o @ kuw aitemba ssY. n I
Embassy of
the State ot Kuwait
The Hague
Namibia,25 Israeli occupation is in fundamental breach of its intemational
obligations and the most fundamental rules of intemational law and its
presence in the occupied territory is illegal.
35.Accordingly, the legal consequences that the General Assembly requested
the Court to identifu must include the occupying Power's complete,
immediate and unconditional withdrawal from all parts of the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, including the complete removal of its military forces
and settlers. Moreover, Member states of the United Nations must be
directed to recognize the illegality and invalidity ofthe situation, and they
must be directed not to render aid or assistance to its maintain and to take
all legal steps to compel the occupying Power to end its occupation and to
enable the Palestinian people to exercise their right of self-determination.
The United Nations itself must recognize the illegality of the Israeli
occupation of the OPT, in all of its aspects, facilitate its immediate
termination, refrain from taking any action to aid or abet the occupation,
and take action to support the Palestinian people in the exercise their right
of self-determ ination.
36. The State of Kuwait, in this regard, recalls the Final Statement of the 14th
Session of the Islamic Summit Conference held in Mecca on 31 May 2019,
which reaffirmed the rejection of any position issued by any intemational
body in support of prolonging the occupation, and its expansionist
settlement project at the expense of the legitimate national rights of the
Palestinian people, and its rejection of all illegal Israeli measures and
18
carnegielaan 9,2517 Kh The Hague, The Nethe ands, Tel: (31-70) 312 3400 - Fax: (31-70) 365 8398
Em ail : inf o @ kuwaitembassY. nl
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Embassy ot
the State of Kuwait
The Hague
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decisions aiming to alter the facts in the occupied Palestinian territories
including East Jerusalem, as well as undermining the two-state resolution,
either by annexation or colonialist occupation expansion on Palestinian
territories.
37.For the foregoing reasons, the State of Kuwait calls upon the esteemed
Court to assume its role as an important and effective United Nations body
in establishing the rules and principles ofjustice in the Organization and
prioritize the rule of law, for the world has not witnessed a tragedy similar
to the tragedy of the Palestinian people, who must be relieved from the
illegal Israeli occupation of their native land so that they will be allowed to
enjoy the fundamental rights to which all peoples are entitled under
intemational law, including especially their inalienable rights to selfdetermination,
including to the independence of their State and the right
of return of Palestinian refirgees.
H.E. Mr. Ali Ahmad Ebraheem S Aldafiri
Am rofth ait
To the King
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carnegietaan g ,2517 Kh The Hague, The Netherlands, Tel: (31-70) 312 3400 - Fax: (31-70) 365 8398
E mai I : i nf o @ kuwa itembassY. n I
Written statement of Kuwait