Friends and family gathered before screens in living rooms and local coffee shops to watch the opening statements at the top United Nations court, located in the Netherlands.
In at least one cafe in the West Bank city of Ramallah, some cheered as they watched South Africa’s justice minister expound on the decades-long “systematic oppression and violence” of Palestinians.
No matter the outcome of the lengthy judicial process, Palestinians hailed Thursday’s hearing as a watershed moment for a population that felt forgotten by world powers and betrayed by its own leaders throughout decades of suffering abuses under Israeli occupation.
Since Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza in a 1967 war, Palestinians have endured land-seizing Israeli settlements, army raids on their homes, restrictions on their movements, bars to using their own natural resources and military courts — all entrenching a feeling that the world’s hand-wringing about human rights doesn’t apply to them.
Munther Isaac, a Palestinian pastor whose Christmas sermon about Gaza’s devastation was quoted in Thursday’s opening statement, felt a wave of gratitude for South Africa.
Naseem Hassan, 48, a medic in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, said he was rushing the bodies of more dead Palestinians into an overwhelmed hospital just a few hundred meters from Israeli tanks.
The original article contains 953 words, the summary contains 212 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!