WASHINGTON: The US defended Israel at the UN’s highest court on Wednesday, arguing that calls for the country to withdraw from the Palestinian territories fail to take into consideration its “very real security needs”. Richard Visek, the acting legal adviser at the US state department, told a 15-judge panel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, that only a two-state solution could bring about peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
The court is hearing six days of arguments over Israel’s occupation of Palestinian-majority territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which has been the subject of years of debates. The hearings – involving more than 50 countries, a level of participation never before seen – were called long before Israel went to war against Hamas in Gaza, but have become part of a concerted global effort to stop the conflict.
Israel has said it would not participate in the hearings, and sent a letter to the court last year arguing that the focus of the proceedings failed to “recognise Israel’s right and duty to protect its citizens”.
The US has strongly defended Israel during the war, including on Tuesday, when it cast the lone veto against a UNSC resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire. On Wednesday, Visek asked the court to uphold the “established framework” for a two-state solution that he said UN bodies have agreed to rather than heed calls by other nations for Israel’s “unilateral and unconditional withdrawal” from occupied territories. The Oct 7 attacks on Israel were a reminder of the security threats facing Israel, Visek said, “and they persist.”