A video showing Palestine's Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki addressing the media is being shared online with the false claim that he is briefing the media on the International Court of Justice declaring Israel as an illegal state.
BOOM found that the video is from July 2024, and shows al-Maliki briefing the media on ICJ's ruling on Israel's occupation of West Bank and the Gaza strip, which was declared as unlawful, and does not address Israel's sovereignty in any way.
October 7, 2024 marked one year of the ongoing conflict, sparked by an attack by Hamas in Southern Israel, which has devastated the Gaza strip by persistent Israeli attacks, claiming over 42,000 Palestinian lives. The posts are viral in this backdrop.
The video has been shared on X and Facebook with captions in various languages. Some of the captions being shared are:
"Israel has been declared an illegal state by the International Court of Justice. ICJ says Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal - It also says Israel should end all settlement activity there, in the landmark case."
"अंतर्राष्ट्रीय न्यायालय द्वारा इज़राइल को एक अवैध देश घोषित किया गया है।"
Click here, here and here to view such posts on Facebook, and here, here and here to view the posts on X.
ICJ Ruling Is On Israel's Occupation, Not Sovereignty
BOOM did a keyword search with "al-maliki media brief ICJ ruling" and came across multiple videos by news outlets from July 19, 2024,on the Palestinian foreign minister addressing the media on a recent ICJ ruling on the conflict.
BOOM listened closely to one of the videos published by TRT World, and found that al-Maliki is specifically talking about Israel's occupation of Palestine, and its settlements in Palestinian territories.
"Israel's occupation has been declared unlawful by the world court which has stipulated that it must be terminated completely, and as rapidly as possible. The court also found that illegal Israeli occupation violates the UN Charter of Human Rights and international humanitarian law. The court further unequivocally declared that all Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory are illegal and must be dismantled and that all Israeli settlers must be evacuated," he can be heard saying.
The same briefing was also published by Al Jazeera English, and the Associated Press.
We also accessed news reports on ICJ's ruling from July, as reported by BBC, Live Law, The Indian Express and The Hindu, which also mention that the ICJ ruling specifically pertains to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, and not Israel's sovereignty.
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