The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday issued a non-binding opinion that Israeli settlements in the West Bank amount to an illegal occupation.

Key Details: The opinion, which is unenforceable, found that Israel’s government is obliged to carry out “evacuations” of settlers and pay “reparation” for damage. Israeli officials said the opinion attempts to interfere with Israeli sovereignty.

For Context: Since the outbreak of war in October, disputes over Israel’s conduct against Hamas have arisen repeatedly at the ICJ:

• January — South Africa brought a case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza; the case is ongoing.
• April — Nicaragua requested the court order Germany to stop sending Israel military aid and resume funding U.N. aid; the court rejected the request.
• May — The court ordered Israel to halt its Rafah offensive; Israel did not comply.

Key Quotes: Israel “has — for all intents and purposes — annexed parts of the West Bank, while seeking to hide behind a fiction of temporariness,” states a U.N. Human Rights Council report from 2022 quoted in the ICJ opinion. “The Jewish nation cannot be an occupier in its own land," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

How the Media Covered It: Reuters (Center bias) and NBC (Lean Left) directly referred to the settlements as an “occupation” of Palestinian land; outlets on the right including Fox News (Right) and Daily Wire (Right) did not use the word outside of quotes. Daily Wire called the ICJ “anti-Israel” and listed violent Palestinian-on-Israeli crimes from recent decades.