Israel Hayom reported on B’nai B’rith International filing a brief with the International Court of Justice arguing that the court should refrain from issuing an opinion against Israel that was referred to it by the U.N. General Assembly.

Read in Israel Hayom (in Hebrew).

Article Summary (in English)

The International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) intends to issue an advisory opinion on the “legal consequences arising from the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, from its prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967…” as referred to the court by the U.N. General Assembly in December 2022. In this article, Israel Hayom reported that B’nai B’rith filed a brief with the court arguing that it should refrain on procedural and substantive grounds from issuing an opinion.

“B’nai B’rith, the first Jewish organization to be recognized by the United Nations and that has been active for 180 years, says that the court should refrain from hearing the case because ‘the General Assembly’s referral resolution was heavily biased, presenting political opinions as facts and asking the ICJ to confirm those opinions.'”

The organization further charges that “many of the U.N. member states that approved the resolution are autocracies that refuse to recognize the State of Israel.” The 90-page brief was written by a cadre of leading international jurists. They note that “A court decision to go forward with this case would be seen as a strikingly political decision, not a limited judicial one, which would do grave damage to the reputation of the court.”

Alan Schneider, director of the B’nai B’rith office in Israel, told Israel Hayom that the brief lays out clearly the court’s lack of jurisdiction to try the State of Israel.