The International Court of Justice ruled Friday that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian Territories is illegal and called on it to stop building settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas hailed the decision while Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said it cannot alter the “legality of Israeli settlement in all the territories of our homeland”.
The top UN court said Friday that Israel’s presence in the Palestinian Territories is “unlawful” and called on it to end and for settlement construction to stop immediately, issuing an unprecedented, sweeping condemnation of Israel’s rule over the lands it captured 57 years ago.
