Qatar rejects double standards over Israeli occupation

Qatar underlined the need for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to consider all opinions that view the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories illegal, illegitimate and based on apartheid, stressing that ending this situation requires establishing a situation that gives the Palestinians their rights.
Qatar also considered that the credibility of international law depends the ICJ's decision and opinion, pointing out that the court has jurisdiction, and there is no reason to refrain from giving its opinion.
In Qatar's plea before the court in the advisory sessions on Palestine in The Hague Friday, Qatar's Representative to the International Court of Justice, HE Dr Mutlaq bin Majid al-Qahtani, voiced the State's rejection of the double standards, stressing that the international law must be applied equally to all.
He noted that Israel relegates Palestinians to fragmented enclaves, restricts their movement, and renders their daily lives all but unlivable, and isolates the residents of Gaza from the world since 2007. It has imposed a system of draconian checkpoints, subjecting millions of Palestinians to daily indignities, in addition to imposing an unprecedented lockdown on the entire civilian territory of the West Bank. Settlers, with the support of the occupation authorities, are practising violence against Palestinians, at a time when Israeli forces are targeting Palestinians in the West Bank with aircraft and missiles, he added.
Dr al-Qahtani said that Israeli occupation's actions confirm that the situation in Palestine is the most pressing threat to international peace and security, and that the ICJ must consider the repercussions of Israel's practices that must stop, highlighting that Israel's illegal practices are not a coincidence, especially since it has obstructed all peaceful solutions and continues to illegally occupy Palestinian lands.
In Qatar's plea before the ICJ, Dr al-Qahtani said that Israel is pursuing an apartheid policy with regard to its settlement project, and its practices constitute a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, indicating that the basis of its project is settlement and the imposition of settlers on the occupied territories, as the war in Gaza was exploited to cover settlement activities in Jerusalem and the West Bank.