19 Fall 2024 32. Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Isr.-PLO, ch. 1, arts. IX(5)(a) (“The Council will not have powers and responsibilities in the sphere of foreign relations.”), XI, XXI(8), IX(5), XXXI(7) (“Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations.”), Dec. 28, 1995. 33. Press Release, No. 2024/52, Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel), June 3, 2024, available at https://www.icj-cij. org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240603pre-02-00-en.pdf 34. Statute of the International Court of Justice, Arts. 62-63. relations.32 Thus it can be argued that the Palestine declaration of independence is illegal and should not be recognized. Palestine has requested permission from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to intervene in South Africa’s claim that Israel is violating the Genocide Convention.33 Only States can request such a right to intervene.34 If the Court approves the request, the Court will be determining that Palestine is a State. Such an ICJ determination will carry weight with a number of States. This author’s personal estimate is that the Court will try to delay having to take such a decision for as long as it can. This author also believes that Crawford’s aphorism “An entity is not a State because it is recognized; it is recognized because it is a State” reflects international law. Despite the 2004 UN Resolution, the stipulations of the Montevideo Convention remain the appropriate criteria for determining whether “Palestine” is a State. n Robbie Sabel is a professor of international law at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and a member of the Academic Advisory Board of Justice.
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