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Prolonged occupation and de facto annexation, two sides of the same coin? How the time factor influences the legality of the occupation in submissions made to the International Court of Justice in the context of the Policies and Practices of Israel advisory opinion

par Djanaralieva, Kheda
Référence Revue de droit militaire et de droit de la guerre, 63, 1, page (97-123)
Publication Publié, 2025-07-01

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

This article delves into the issue of the legality of Israel’s occupation of Palestine in light of the prohibition on territorial acquisition by force in the context of the International Court of Justice’s 2024 advisory opinion on the Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. A detailed analysis of the proceedings surrounding this advisory opinion indeed reveals that a significant portion of submissions from States and international organizations to the Court is devoted to characterizing the occupation of Palestine by Israel as annexation, par ticularly as a de facto annexation – a concept that, until now, has been primarily developed within legal scholarship. The proceedings thus offer a unique insight into the legal rea soning employed by States and international organizations to substantiate the existence of a de facto annexation. Notably, one of the most striking aspects of these submissions is the central role attributed to the temporal dimension of the occupation in this regard. Through a comprehensive examination of the submissions, this article demonstrates that the unprecedented duration of Israel’s occupation as well as the permanence of defining measures implemented by Israel in the occupied territory – primarily the establishment of settlements – served as key indicators that led to its classification as a de facto annexation.