News - Middle East: The International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling declaring Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories illegal marks a significant milestone as it provides a clear legal framework for addressing the decades-long occupation, says a US-based legal analyst.

Susan Akram, the director of the International Human Rights Clinic at the Boston University School of Law, in an interview with the Press TV website, said the ICJ ruling is groundbreaking as it sets a new precedent in international law by underscoring the illegality of the occupation itself.

She urged the global community to act upon the ruling as it is a legal and moral obligation to ensure justice and self-determination of the Palestinian people.

“The Court's ruling that Israel's occupation itself is illegal is extremely significant because until now UN Resolutions and opinions from the various human rights bodies have found that many aspects of Israel's treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian territories are illegal, but not that the occupation itself is illegal,” she stressed.

The law professor noted that the law of occupation, primarily outlined in the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, regulates the conduct of an occupying power but does not prohibit occupation per se.

It assumes occupation is temporary during armed conflicts and restricts the occupier's actions. Importantly, occupation does not grant sovereignty to the occupying power.

“The ICJ found that aside from the length of time of the Israeli occupation—57 years--the legal and non-legal measures Israel has implemented in the OPT and East Jerusalem (Al-Quds) have converted its occupation into annexation,” she stated.

“The ICJ equates annexation to aggression, which is absolutely prohibited by the UN Charter and customary international law. There are many other groundbreaking aspects of the Court's opinion, but this is the main underlying ruling that makes the opinion so significant.”