UNRWA ban: Why the World Court is hearing another case against Israel
Palestine’s legal team at the International Court of Justice, The Hague, on 28 April 2025
Sondos Asem reports in Middle East Eye on 28 April 2025
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) began hearings on Monday into Israel’s humanitarian obligations in occupied Palestine and attacks on UN agencies.
Since March, Israel has blocked all aid from reaching Gaza and no food, water or medicines have reached its 2.3 million residents in the past eight weeks.
The case was prompted by Israel banning the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in October, an event that sparked global outrage and calls for Israel to be ejected from the UN due to accusations that it violated the founding UN charter, particularly the privileges and immunities enjoyed by UN agencies.
Expected to be decided in late May or early June, it will be the third advisory opinion case since 2004 to be heard before the World Court in relation to Israel’s violations of international law.
Around 40 states, including Palestine, are presenting evidence before the court between 28 April and 2 May. Israel’s main ally, the United States, is due to speak at the Peace Palace on Wednesday 30 April.
“It is likely that the court will affirm that Israel has obligations to maintain UNRWA operations in the territory, not to expel it,” Professor Ardi Imseis, Palestine’s legal representative to the court, told Middle East Eye after Monday’s proceedings. “Israel has been destroying with reckless abandon UN property, killing UN staff members. All of that property is absolutely immune from any form of interference by anyone at any time, no matter who holds the property right,” he added.
Professor Eirik Bjorge, an international law academic who led calls for the advisory opinion back in October, said that the majority of states are of the opinion that Israel’s actions towards UNRWA are unlawful.
“A very great number of participating states maintain that Israel has the obligation under the UN Charter to give UNRWA every assistance and that it has an absolute obligation to respect its privileges and immunities,” Bjorge told MEE. “A small gallery of rogues – Israel itself, Hungary and the United States – argue against this majority position,” he explained.
The US Department of Justice on Thursday decided that UNRWA was not immune from legal action in the US, a position it may reiterate in this week’s hearings, Bjorge said, describing it as “a perfectly hopeless position”.
UNRWA is the primary source of humanitarian support for an estimated 5.9 million Palestinian refugees in occupied Palestine and neighbouring countries hosting Palestinian refugees.
This includes the provision of basic services such as education, food, medical care and the distribution of fuel. Its closure may lead to the collapse of the primary lifeline for Palestinians.
According to the organisation’s latest situation report, since October 2023, Israel has killed at least 290 Unrwa staff members and carried out at least 830 attacks on Unrwa premises and people sheltering in them.
What is the court asked to rule on?
The hearings follow the resolution of the UN General Assembly on 29 December 2024 (A/RES/79/232), mainly lobbied for by Norway, requesting the court to give an advisory opinion on the following questions:
“What are the obligations of Israel, as an occupying Power and as a member of the United Nations, in relation to the presence and activities of the United Nations, including its agencies and bodies, other international organisations and third States, in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including to ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population as well as of basic services and humanitarian and development assistance, for the benefit of the Palestinian civilian population, and in support of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination?”