Legal experts warn ICJ UNRWA ruling poses danger to US interests

Leading experts on the United Nations and international law on Wednesday blasted the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its non-binding ruling that Israel cooperate with a scandal-plagued U.N. aid agency that the U.S. stopped funding because of its support for Hamas terrorists.

The ICJ President, Yuji Iwasawa, said the Jewish state “is under the obligation to agree to and facilitate relief schemes provided by the United Nations and its entities, including UNRWA.”

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Eugene Kontorovich, a professor and director of the Center for International Law in the Middle East at George Mason University Scalia Law School, told Fox News Digital that “The opinion is, most importantly, not a decision of case, or possessing any legal authority whatsoever.”

He warned the ruling is also dangerous to U.S. interests. “The ICJ claims it has “moral authority,” but it must be high on its own supply. The Court concluded that UNRWA is a neutral, legitimate aid agency despite its members having participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7th invasion, and the broad infiltration of its facilities and organization by Hamas, which the U.S. government has acknowledged. It makes up new legal rules from scratch. It is a real danger to the U.S., which has also been repeatedly on the losing end of Advisory Opinions by the politicized Court.”

Kontorovich, who is senior research fellow for the Heritage Foundation, added,” Based on this opinion, the ICJ could conclude that the U.S. must continue to work with U.N. organizations it wishes to quit or boycott – or provide aid to terror groups working to kill Americans. The U.S. should quit any treaty giving the ICJ jurisdiction – and recall its judge on the court.”

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Israel’s Foreign Ministry wrote on X Israel that it” categorically rejects the ICJ’s ‘advisory opinion,’ which was entirely predictable from the outset regarding UNRWA. This is yet another political attempt to impose political measures against Israel under the guise of ‘International Law.’ Today’s ICJ advisory opinion should have called out the terrorist activity that UNRWA has been involved in: UNRWA employees directly took part in the October 7th massacre and continue to assist Hamas’s terrorist operations – all under the auspices of the United Nations.” 

The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres urged Israel to comply with the ICJ ruling. In response to the Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon terming the ICJ ruling a “shameful decision,” a spokesperson for Guterres told reporters that, “We are counting on the Government of Israel to abide by its legal obligations. I’m not going to respond to the rhetoric by this or that official.”

Anne Bayefsky, Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, told Fox News Digital that “The ICJ – pompously called the ‘World Court’ – is a creature of the United Nations, an institution riddled with antisemitism and bias against the Jewish state. 

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“So in this case, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution that declared Israel guilty and then ‘asked’ its Court to rubber stamp the pre-determined conclusion – to which the Court responded ‘aye-aye.”

Fox News Digital reported on Tuesday that the Hamas-linked United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) should play no role in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip because it employed Hamas terrorists, according to Mideast experts.