Legality of the Israeli occupation of Palestine

The legality of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, which has continued since 1967 and is the longest military occupation in modern history,^[1] is a subject that has received much less attention than violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) that have occurred during the occupation.^[2][3][4] Multiple United Nations General Assembly resolutions have described the continuing occupation as illegal. The general thrust of international law scholarship addressing this question has concluded that, regardless of whether it was initially legal, the occupation has become illegal over time.^[5] Reasons cited for its illegality include use of force for impermissible purposes such as annexation, violation of the Palestinian right to self-determination, that the occupation itself is an illegal regime "of alien subjugation, domination and exploitation", or some combination of these factors.^[6] Eyal Benvenisti suggested that refusal by an occupier to engage in good faith with efforts to reach a peaceful solution should not only be considered illegal but as outright annexation.^[7] International law scholar Ralph Wilde^[8] states that "The common way of understanding the extended duration of the occupation... is a prolonged violation of international law".^[9] However, Israel denies that it is occupying Palestine and maintains that its presence is legal.

On 20 October 2022, the Permanent United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Israel Palestine conflict released a report^[10] to the United Nations General Assembly, calling on the Security Council to end Israel’s "permanent occupation" and on individual UN member states to prosecute Israeli officials. The report found "reasonable grounds" to conclude that the occupation "is now unlawful under international law due to its permanence" and Israel's "de-facto annexation policies."^[11][12] Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid said the report is "biased, false, inciting and blatantly unbalanced" and called it "anti-Semitic".^[13] The International Court of Justice (ICJ) accepted a request from the United Nations (UN) as to the Legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory including East Jerusalem.^[14] The court has set 25 July 2023 for presentation of written statements and 25 October 2023 for subsequent written comments on the statements.^[15]