Arab League presents a to the Inter Court. of Justice in Palestine

The General Secretariat of the Arab League presented a written statement ... on the issue of Palestine to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. Infopal reports it. The presentation follows a resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2022, which asked the ICJ to issue an advisory opinion on the implications of the Zionist regime's continued violations on the Palestinian people's right to self-determination.

The written statement underscores the importance of the international community assuming its responsibility in halting Israeli settlements and its plans to annex parts of occupied Palestinian lands. Jamal Rushdi, spokesman for the Arab League Secretary-General, said the written statement includes evidence and justification of what the Palestinian people, their land and capabilities have been subjected to, including continued Israeli occupation, construction and expansion of settlements and the application of an apartheid system by the Israeli occupation.

The latest case was an attack on the Mar Elias Monastery and Church in Haifa, just as the priest, Father Samer Zaknoun, was being interviewed by the Safa news site. Zaknoun was on the phone with a Safa reporter to discuss the latest wave of attacks on Christian sites in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, when a group of settlers "barbarically raided" the monastery and attacked the church and worshipers .

The attack was the fifth of its kind. It started with a small number of settlers and escalated into a mass assault. The attack was preceded by others against the Maronite Church in Acre and a monastery in Jaffa, where settlers tried to take control and recite prayers, claiming, falsely from what is known, that they contain the graves of rabbis. The increase in settler attacks on Christians is taking a dangerous turn, both in their number and in the type of attacks. There have been at least 40 documented assaults in the last few months. “Christian churches have become daily targets for attacks by settler gangs, who are clearly taking advantage of the extremism shown by the Israeli political hierarchy towards Muslims and Christians in the country,” Father Zaknoun told Safa.

"Now we see with our own eyes their assault on the Church of Mar Elias: there is an ongoing fight and the young people are trying to block dozens of settlers, and to get the police before it is too late". He warned that the Israeli government's failure to curb these groups encourages them to take advantage of the situation and step up their attacks, thereby weakening the Christian presence in Palestine. “We don't rule out the possibility that the [Israeli] government is a partner in this plan that targets our existence, to one day be told to get out of here,” he added. All Israeli settlers and settlements are illegal under international law. Israel treats international law with open contempt and the international community allows it to act with impunity.