FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES
Pending ICJ Case Threatens to Demand Unconditional Israeli Withdrawal from West Bank
Orde Kittrie
July 21, 2023

…Per UN Security Council Resolution 242 and the Oslo Accords, Israel need withdraw only in exchange for lasting peace. Under the framework, any legal violations by Israel in how it conducts its presence in the West Bank must end, but they do not render the Israeli presence itself illegal or require Israeli withdrawal. The conflict has endured because Palestinian leaders have rejected Israeli offers — in exchange for peace — of a Palestinian state in up to 94 percent of the West Bank. Israel won’t implement an ICJ opinion demanding unilateral withdrawal, which would turn the West Bank into a more strategically located version of Gaza, which Israel evacuated only to face thousands of Hamas rocket attacks. A similar West Bank departure would gravely endanger civilians within Israel’s pre-1967 borders and likely shutter Israel’s economy. READ MORE