[Roundtable] Implications for the European Union and its Member States of the 2024 ICJ Advisory Opinion regarding the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory: The Dutch context

It has now been over a year since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rendered its much-awaited Advisory Opinion (AO) on Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Therein, the Court made it abundantly clear that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) is unlawful and that it must end and that Israel’s practices and policies in the OPT violate fundamental rules and principles of international law, including the right to self-determination, rules on the use of force, human rights law and international humanitarian law.

At the same time, the Court also addressed the international law obligations of third States in relation to Israel’s unlawful acts in the OPT. It found that third States and other international actors must not recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of Israel in the OPT, they must not render aid or assistance in maintaining it and they must co-operate to bring the illegal situation to an end. What do these duties entail for the EU’s (and its MS’) relations with Israel – particularly in light of the Union’s constitutional commitment to ‘the strict observance of international law’ (Art. 3(5) TEU)?

In a recent Expert Legal Opinion on the Implications for the EU of the 2024 ICJ AO commissioned by several MEPs, the authors stress that EU’s ongoing review of Israel’s compliance with Art. 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement must take into account the findings of serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in the ICJ AO.

In this light, the present roundtable aims to bring together a number of international and EU law experts and practitioners as well as national and EU officials with a view to providing legal and practical insights on this important and timely topic that lies in the interface of international, EU and national law.

Speakers:

• Prof. Gleider Hernadez (KU Leuven)
• Prof. Ramses Wessel (University of Groningen)
• Prof. Janne Nijman (UvA, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva)