President George W. Bush said, “I think the wall is a problem. It is very difficult to develop confidence between the Palestinians and the Israelis with a wall snaking through the West Bank.” Since 1945, the International Court of Justice has functioned essentially as the judicial arm of the United Nations system, and in July 2004 the court determined that the Israeli government’s construction of the segregation wall in the occupied Palestinian West Bank was illegal. Even Thomas Buergenthal, the American judge who cast the lone negative vote (largely on procedural grounds), acknowledged that the Palestinians were under occupation and had the right to self-determination, that Israel was obligated to adhere to international humanitarian law, and that there were serious quetions whether routing an impenetrable barrier to protect West Bank settlements would qualify as legitimate self-defense.
The court acknowledged Israel’s right to protect the lives of its citizens by building a protective barrier within its own national border but based its negative ruling on international law including the Fourth Geneva Convention, which forbids an occupying power from transferring any parts of its civilian population into territories seized by military force. The court called on Israel to cease construction of the wall, to dismantle what has already been built in areas within the occupied Palestinian territory, and to compensate Palestinians who have suffered losses as a result of the wall’s construction. The Israeli Supreme Court has chosen not to accept the International Court’s decision but acknowledged that Israel holds the West Bank “in belligerent occupation” and that “the law of belligerent occupation … imposes conditions” on the authority of the military, even in areas related to security.
— Jimmy Carter