Responding to the statement issued by Australia’s Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus KC MP, regarding his current trip to Israel and the unlawfully Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) this week, the Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ) is deeply concerned by the legal implications associated with such a blatantly political trip. It is alarming that this woeful and ill-informed decision was made despite significant international legal rulings issued by international courts against Israel and Israeli officials in the past twelve months, which also placed clear and unequivocal obligations on third States, of which Australia is no exception. These include orders by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

The Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ) welcomes the landmark ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 19 July 2024, which categorised Israel’s 57-year occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) as unlawful. In its historic Advisory Opinion, the ICJ also held that Israel’s policies and practices in the OPT have amounted to annexation of significant portions of the OPT. The ICJ found that the consequences of Israel’s illegal occupation and annexation of the OPT has resulted in the severe deprivation of the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to be free from the prohibitions of racial discrimination, segregation and apartheid.