Hearings into Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land [Video]

Historic hearings opened on Monday at the United Nations’ top court into the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state.The hearings are to last six days before the International Court of Justice. Monday’s session started with Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki speaking as a representative of the Palestinians. The hearings follow a request submitted by the U.N. General Assembly for a non-binding advisory opinion into Israel’s policies in the occupied territories.Though the case opens at the court’s Great Hall of Justice against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, it focuses instead on Israel’s open-ended control over the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem.The Palestinian legal team is expected to tell the panel of international judges that Israel has violated the prohibition on territorial conquest by annexing large swaths of occupied land and the Palestinians’ right to self-determination, and has imposed a …