Addressing the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday, China said the Palestinians’ use of armed struggle to gain independence from foreign and colonial rule was “legitimate” and “well founded” in international law.

“In pursuit of the right to self-determination, Palestinian people’s use of force to resist foreign oppression and complete the establishment of an independent state is [an] inalienable right well founded in international law,” China’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, told the ICJ in The Hague.

Citing resolutions by the UN General Assembly, Beijing’s envoy to the world court said people struggling for self-determination could use “all available means, including armed struggle.”

“The struggle waged by peoples for their liberation, right to self-determination, including armed struggle against colonialism, occupation, aggression, domination against foreign forces should not be considered terror acts,” he added, citing international conventions.

However, he stressed that genuine acts of terrorism are another matter.

Israel’s practices and policies of “oppression have severely undermined and impeded the exercise and full realization of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination,” Zhang Jun continued.

Justice ‘must not be denied’ to Palestinians

China’s Foreign Ministry’s legal adviser Ma Xinmin also told the ICJ on Thursday that the Palestinians “must not be denied” justice.

“Justice has been long delayed, but it must not be denied,” Ma stated.

“Fifty-seven years have passed since Israel began its occupation of the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories). The unlawful nature of the occupation and sovereignty over the occupied territories remain unchanged,” he said.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from The Hague, said China used its time at the ICJ to counter the United States’ argument on Wednesday that Israel should not be ordered to unconditionally withdraw from the occupied territories without security guarantees.

“The US said the United Nations and the ICJ should stay out of a bilateral issue between Israel and Palestine. According to China, it was definitely a matter for the UN to talk about the self-determination of the Palestinian people,” Vaessen said.

The Chinese representative said Israel is a foreign nation occupying Palestine, so the right to self-defence lies more with the Palestinians than with the Israelis.

Ireland also told the ICJ hearing that “Israel has committed serious breaches of a number of peremptory norms of general international law”.

The Irish representative added that Israel had also breached the basic rules of international humanitarian law.

The legal adviser for Japan’s Foreign Ministry, Tomohiro Mikanagi, also told the ICJ that his country believes a “two-state solution where Israel and the future independent Palestinian state live side by side in peace and dignity remains the only viable path for both peoples”.

The ICJ is hearing from about 50 countries on their opinion about the occupation and is part of a push by Palestinians to get international legal institutions to examine Israeli policy.

On Monday, Palestinian representatives asked the judges to declare Israel’s occupation of their territory illegal and said its opinion could help reach a two-state solution.

In the occupied West Bank, tensions between illegal settlers and Palestinians intensified significantly due to Israel’s war on Gaza.