Syria has urged “immediate” prosecution of the Israeli regime’s officials over their perpetration of blatant violations and various crimes.
Ammar al-Arsan, the Arab country’s representative to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague, made the remarks to the tribunal on Friday, during oral proceedings on the legal consequences of the regime’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.
“Syria believes that Israel’s prosecution, due to egregious violation of the international laws and perpetration of [various] crimes, is highly imperative,” the envoy said.
The Israeli regime claimed existence in 1948 after occupying huge swathes of Palestinian territories during a Western-backed war.
It occupied more land, namely the West Bank, including East al-Quds, and the Gaza Strip, in another such war in 1967.
Ever since, it has built hundreds of settlements upon the overrun territories and deployed the most aggressive restrictions on the movements of Palestinians there.
Tel Aviv withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but has been keeping the territory under an all-out land, aerial, and naval siege since a year after it left the coastal sliver.
“Syria insists on the temporary nature of the occupation,” Arsan said, adding that the country “does not and will not accord the occupying entity any right to attain sovereignty over the occupied territories, no matter how long the savage occupation is going to take.”
The envoy considered the right to self-determination to be among the most important and original of human rights.
The Israeli regime violates this right by enabling illegal settlement across the occupied Palestinian territories, and “should therefore be held accountable,” he said.
Arsan reminded that, in addition to the crime of occupation, which was being addressed by the court, the Israeli regime was perpetrating genocide in Gaza and carrying out deadly attacks against Syria and Lebanon.
The Syrian official said the Israeli regime’s ability to proceed with such actions reflected the international community’s inability to confront the regime’s crimes and ensure implementation of relevant international resolutions.
