Palestinian representatives assert at the ICJ that they endured colonialism and apartheid under Israel’s occupation, urging an immediate end.

Palestinian representatives on Monday told the UN’s highest court that they were suffering colonialism and apartheid under Israel’s occupation, during the opening of hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

Palestinians are suffering , foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki told the UN’s top court Monday, urging judges to order an immediate and unconditional end to Israel’s occupation.

“The Palestinians have endured colonialism and apartheid… There are those who are enraged by these words. They should be enraged by the reality we are suffering,” Al-Maliki told the ICJ.

The FM presented to the court five maps of historic Palestine, showing Israel’s gradual dispossession of Palestinian land and replacement of the local population in a bid to urge the UN’s highest court to declare Israel’s occupation of their territory illegal.

“Palestine was not a land without a people. There was life on this land – political, cultural, social, and religious,” he said.

Summing up, Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour struggled to hold back his tears as he called for a “future where Palestinian children are treated as children, not as a demographic threat”.

“We call on you to confirm that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is illegal,” Mansour said.

“A finding from this distinguished court. ..would contribute to bringing (occupation) to an immediate end, paving a way to a just and lasting peace,” he said.

“A future in which no Palestinians and no Israelis are killed. A future in which two states live side by side in peace and security.”

In December 2022, the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ for a non-binding advisory opinion on the “legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”.

While any ICJ opinion would be non-binding, it comes amid mounting international legal pressure on Israel amid its brutal and relentless war on Gaza, where it has killed over 29,000 people since 7 October – most of them women and children.

The ICJ will hold hearings all week on the legal implications of Israel’s occupation since 1967, with an unprecedented 52 countries, including Qatar and the United States, expected to give evidence.