The anti-Israel International Court of Justice, an arm of the United Nations, ruled on Friday that Israel’s presence in the biblical areas of Judea and Samaria is “unlawful,” and that Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria, as well as in East Jerusalem, violated international law.

In an opinion delivered by its president, Nawaf Salam of Lebanon, who wrote in 2015 of Israel, “Unhappy birthday to you, 48 years of occupation,” the court claimed, “The West Bank and East Jerusalem are occupied territories in which Israel has status of occupying Power.”

In the face of the October 7 attack by the terrorist group Hamas in which they murdered more than 1,200 people in Israel and in the face of the decades-old series of wars launched by Arab states against Israel and the intifadas which claimed thousands of Jewish lives, the court wrote, “Israel’s systematic failure to prevent or punish attacks by settlers against the life or bodily integrity of Palestinians, as well as Israel’s excessive use of force against Palestinians, is inconsistent with its obligations.”