As Israel’s military recently launched new overnight strikes on Lebanon, targeting what it identified as Hezbollah weapons storage facilities, Lighthouse Journalism uncovered a claim that has been widely circulated amidst the conflict. It was being claimed that Israel has been declared an illegal state by the International Court of Justice. The post further claimed that it should not be recognized as a sovereign nation worldwide. During the investigation we found the claim to be false. The video that accompanied the claim is old.
Claim:
X user faiz ahmed tarar shared the viral claim on his profile.
Other users too shared the similar claim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by checking the news reports about the claim mentioned on the social media platform.
We could not find any recent reports, however the news reports and videos on the web were from July, 2024.
According to reports, the International Court of Justice had instead said Israel’s presence in Palestinian territory is unlawful.
The report said: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and should come to an end “as rapidly as possible.” It said other nations were obliged not to “render aid or assistance in maintaining” Israel’s presence in the territory. It said Israel must end settlement construction immediately and existing settlements must be removed, according to a summary of the more than 80-page opinion read out by Salam.
We also found several reports about the same.
The video being shared along with the claim was from TRT World, this led us to check the videos on TRT World’s YouTube channel.
We found over a 2 minute long video of Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al Maliki’s briefing to the media after ICJ ruling on Israel’s occupation.
Here, the minister spoke about Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.
We also found a 4 min 48 seconds video on Al Jazeera English X handle. The video was uploaded on July 19, 2024.
In this Palestinian FM Riyad al-Maliki was heard saying, “This is a watershed moment for Palestine, for justice and for international law. Israel’s occupation has been declared unlawful by the world court.”
Conclusion: Old video of Palestinian FM Riyad al-Maliki giving a press briefing after the International Court of Justice ruled Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory as unlawful is being shared as recent. The ICJ has not declared Israel an illegal state.
