UN top court ruled 'illegal' Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory, not Israeli state

"Breaking News: Israel has been declared an illegal state by the International Court of Justice," read a Malay-language post on Facebook on September 4, 2024. 

"The court also ruled that Israel cannot be a sovereign state. At last, justice has prevailed."

The post was shared alongside a video from Turkish state broadcaster TRT World showing Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki speaking to the press after the ICJ issued its advisory opinion on the Israel-Gaza war on July 19 (archived link).

Maliki told reporters at The Hague that the opinion was a "watershed moment for Palestine, for justice and for international law".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the ICJ's opinion as a "decision of lies" (archived link).

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Screenshot of the false post captured on October 3, 2024.

The video spread on Facebook accounts in Malaysia with thousands of followers who falsely claimed Israel had been declared an "illegal state".

Muslim-majority Malaysia is a staunch supporter of Palestinians' aspirations to statehood and does not have diplomatic ties with Israel (archived link).

Similar posts have been viewed thousands of times after they were shared by social media users from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Kenya and South Africa. 

The misinformation spread amid the war in Gaza which broke out after Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity. 

Of the 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,965 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

ICJ ruling

The ICJ said Israel's continued occupation of Palestinian territories was against international law, in a nonbinding advisory opinion issued on July 19 on the request of the UN General Assembly.

In June 1967, Israel crushed some of its Arab neighbours in a six-day war, seizing the West Bank and East Jerusalem, at the time annexed by Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt.

Israel then began to settle the seized Arab territory. The UN later declared the occupation of Palestinian territory illegal, and Cairo regained Sinai under its 1979 peace deal with Israel.

The ICJ pointed to Israel's policies -- such as the building of settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem including use of the area's natural resources, the annexation and imposition of permanent control over lands and discriminatory legislation against Palestinians -- saying that they violated international law.

The court also called on states "to take steps toward ceasing" arms provisions to Israel when there are "reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the occupied Palestinian territory." 

However, nowhere in the 83-page opinion did the court declare Israel an "illegal state" (archived link).