The International Court of Justice Decision on the Separation Barrier and the Green Line

Abstract

This Article examines how the advisory opinion of the ICJ on the “Legal Consequences of Constructing a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” dealt with the status of the territory through which the separation barrier passed and the question of the status of the “Green Line” which delineates this territory.Israel has accepted that the rules of belligerent occupation are to be applied to the territory, the Court however did not suffice itself with applying the laws of belligerent occupation but chose to follow current UN precedents in the use of the phrase occupied “Palestinian” territory. The Court does not attempt to resolve the dilemma of how the West Bank could be defined as occupied “Palestinian” territory when its status as occupied territory presumably derived from Israel's seizure of the Area from Jordan and a Palestinian State had never existed there, or anywhere.Although the Court disclaimed any intention of determining boundaries, nevertheless the Court treats the Green Line as Israel s Eastern boundary notwithstanding that neither Israel nor any Arab State recognized it as such. By its decision, the Court apparently however has recognized Israel sovereignty West of the Green Line, including West Jerusalem, perhaps an outcome not foreseen by all who initiated the application to the Court.