Dr Wilde issues legal opinion on Israeli occupation of Palestinian West Bank incl E Jerusalem & Gaza

On 30 December 2022 the UN General Assembly voted to request that the International Court of Justice render an advisory opinion on the following questions:

• “(a) What are the legal consequences arising from the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, from its prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures? 
• (b) How do the policies and practices of Israel referred to in paragraph…(a) above affect the legal status of the occupation, and what are the legal consequences that arise for all States and the United Nations from this status?”

On the same day, Dr Ralph Wilde of UCL Faculty of Laws published a Legal Opinion explaining what it means in international law to characterize the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza as ‘legal’ or ‘illegal’.

The Opinion can be found here: https://bit.ly/ralph-wilde-oPt

A blog post about the Opinion, including a summary, can be found on OpinioJuris.

It is based on Dr Wilde’s academic publications: 

• ‘Tears of the Olive Trees:  Mandatory Palestine, the UK, and accountability for colonialism in international law’ in the Journal of the History of International Law (2022)
• ‘Using the Master’s Tools to Dismantle the Master’s House: International Law and Palestinian Liberation’ in the Palestine Yearbook of International Law (2021)

It is also based on an Expert Opinion Dr Wilde wrote for the Swedish humanitarian NGO Diakonia, ‘Applicability of Human Rights Law in Palestine’ (2019).

And two public lectures Dr Wilde delivered in 2022:

• ‘Using the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house: international law and Palestinian liberation’, British Academy Council on British Research on the Levant Kenyon Institute, Al-Quds/Jerusalem, 2022
• ‘Human Rights in Occupied Territories’, 2022 Åland Peace Lecture, Mariehamn, Åland