BERLIN
Germany said on Monday it is "not supporting the Israeli occupation policy" after the UN court affirmed Palestinians' right to self-determination and ruled that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories must be evacuated.
While Germany supports Israel because of its historical responsibility towards the Jewish state that does “not mean it is supporting Israel’s occupation policy,” deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman Christian Wagner told journalists in Berlin.
It is “primarily up to the Israeli government to draw conclusions from this (UN court) report,” he added
Wagner said his country has repeatedly made clear its “stances and positions on Israeli settlement policy.”
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on Israel to draw conclusions from the UN legal report on its occupation policy.
“Even if this report is not binding, the Israeli government would be well advised to take this report seriously,” said Baerbock on the sidelines of an EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels.
She described the text published on Friday by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague as “groundbreaking”.
The report also shows the responsibility of the international community for a two-state solution, Baerbock added.
In other related development, deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said in Berlin that the UN report was in line with “many positions” of her country on this issue.
She said while the ICJ report was non-binding, the decision was “of course internationally relevant.”
On Friday, the top UN court affirmed Palestinians' right to self-determination and ruled that Israeli settlements in occupied territories must be evacuated.
The court's advisory opinion, delivered in The Hague, declared the occupied Palestinian territories as a "single territorial unit" that must be protected.
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.
More than 38,800 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 89,400 injured, according to local health authorities.
Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.