Pakistan asserts that Israeli measures severely impede the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination

Pakistan has asserted that Israeli measures severely impede the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

Caretaker Law Minister Ahmed Irfan Aslam represented Pakistan at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which is currently hosting a pivotal six-day hearing regarding Israel’s 57-year illegal occupation of Palestine.

Minister Aslam highlighted the significance of international law and the ICJ’s role in establishing peace and order in Palestine.

He condemned Israel’s ongoing violations of General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, reiterating that the illegal occupation constitutes a grave violation of human rights.

Caretaker Law Minister Ahmed Irfan Aslam said: “The Palestinian people have as the court has recognized the right to self-determination. This right which is codified in the two UN rights conventions is one of the essential principles of contemporary international law.”

“Pakistan strongly believes in the inherent right of people to live freely and in the justice of struggle of freedom from alien subjugation,” he said.

Aslam further stated that Pakistan believed that the two-state solution must be the basis for peace.

“Pakistan has always been a defender of the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination,” he said at the outset of his speech.

“It was Pakistan that proposed the General Assembly’s first resolution on the first day of the sixth-day war relating to Israel’s invasion of Jerusalem and the measures taken by Israel to change the status of the city.”

“Since then, Pakistan has continued to engage in the important question of internal justice and it remains committed to playing its part,” he added.

Aslam has told the World Court that Israel has disowned its duties as an occupying power by denying the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people.

He said that “systematic racial discrimination was a serious violation of international humanitarian law,” adding that such acts could not be purely in the interest of Israel’s security, but rather in its “interest of acquiring more territory”.

He further added, “It cannot be right that some states have suggested that the court should refrain from finding the occupation itself unlawful and that there’s no obligation to withdraw.

“This would be to allow Israel to profit from its own continued grave wrongs,” he said, adding that the court would fail in discharging its judicial functions.

Pakistan Caretaker Law Minister said that the court would be sending out a “clear signal” to other states that they too might be allowed to benefit from a prolonged and unlawful occupation of the territory of another state.

A total of 52 countries and three human rights organizations are actively participating in the ICJ hearing, signaling widespread international interest and concern regarding the situation in Palestine.

Since Oct 7, 2023, at least 29,514 Palestinians have been killed and 69,616 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Friday.

According to the ministry, more than 100 people have died in the past 24 hours.