 Hearings are the International Court of Justice on the question of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The ICJ or the World Court as it is known is hearing the matter on a request from the UN General Assembly and the hearings are on the legal consequences of Israel's occupation since 1967. Now a number of countries have already presented their viewpoints and many more are said to do so with the hearings set to go on till February 26th. We go to Abdul to find out what are some of the submissions that have been made in the court. Abdul, thank you so much for joining us. There have been a lot of reports over the past four days. Today is the fifth day of the hearings. More countries expected to give their submissions. So maybe first take us through what has been the general sense of the kind of submissions countries have made, what have been the larger arguments they have been presenting. And in fact, if you could also actually start with what is the question the court is hearing in the first place. Well Prashant, as far as the question in front of the court is concerned, it is related to the UN General Assembly resolution which was adopted in December, 2022, in which basically General Assembly asked for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice about what is the legal status when it comes to the occupation, Israeli occupation of Palestine. Apart from that, this is a general question under which there are specific questions related to what is the status of the settlements which are built by Israel in violation of international law in the occupied territory. How do we see the Israeli policies when it comes to kind of treating occupied people, Palestinians and the illegal settlers within the same occupied territories, whether it qualifies to be called apartheid or not. Then there are other questions related to the overall violations of the Palestinian human right within the occupied territories, the violence they are subjected to. So it is basically a set of questions which basically are related to Israeli policies, visa with occupied Palestinians and the overall status, legal status of Israeli occupation. So basically on that subject, of course, there are around 50 odd countries which are basically set to submit their positions in front of the court. There are three main organizations including the Arab League which basically will present its case in front of the court. And so far, if you see, there are two different set of opinions or the positions which have been submitted in front of the court, which basically, of course, there are set of countries like United States which have been basically supportive of Israel which has been known to be supportive of Israel's policies inside Palestine and because there has been a general opinion that US has been the reason behind the prolongation of the occupation in Palestine, as well as there are countries which basically have historically opposed to occupation and demanded a two-stage solution as soon as possible. So these have been the general set of positions which we have seen in the last five days so far. So US has defended, Chinese have opposed and there are of course Palestinians who have demanded a separate state as soon as possible. Abdullah, what has been Israel's response to these proceedings? Well, Israel's position has basically, Israel is one of those countries who have chosen not to present its case orally in front of the court and in fact have submitted a written, what do you call, position. Despite the fact that it says that this entire set of questions are illegitimate and court should not opine on it, it basically also has said that it will not consider the legal opinion given by the ICJ legitimate. Hence it means that whatever will be the opinion of the court, it will not implement it, it will not consider it legitimate. If you see, as I was referring to earlier about two contrasting positions which have been taken, the US in fact came out openly saying that ICJ should not give an opinion to kind of asking Israel to withdraw from its, withdraw its occupation and hence in a way justifying the occupation and kind of demanding for its prolongation. And Chinese on the other hand for example have said that the occupation is illegal and since this is an occupation, it's a colonialism, Palestinians have right to self-defense, Palestinians have right to resist and therefore their resistance should not be compared with terrorism as we have seen US has often called Hamas for example, the actions taken by Hamas as terrorism or Israel has claimed that all Palestinian resistance is basically a form of terrorism. Chinese agreeing with most of the African countries for example South Africa also has already submitted saying that all these claims that Palestinians fighting for their independence is terrorism is basically a logic which basically justified colonialism and occupation and that should not be considered. So Israel's position that even these kind of arguments should not be entertained by the court is basically a position which falls into the larger understanding about Israel, which most of the anti-colonial movements have, that this is a colonial outpost in West Asia and basically it wants to be there, of course serving certain imperialist forces at the global level and that's what has come out in what US has submitted despite the fact that in the international for right it has also talked about two state solution and so on and so forth. So real intentions it seems have come out during the hearing in the ICJ. Thank you so much for the update but do stay back we'll come to you for the next story. As the Ukraine war completed two years the European Union countries have agreed on a 13th round of sanctions against Russia, the sanctions will be formally approved on Saturday. Russia has been heavily sanctioned by the EU countries, the US and its other allies since February 2022, although these measures have really failed to significantly affect Russia's economy. What are these new sanctions and how have earlier rounds affected Russia? We go back to Abdul. Right Abdul, welcome back. Round 13 of EU sanctions against Russia. The war has crossed two years and of course there are also sanctions by the US, Canada, Japan, all these countries. So let's first go to these specific sanctions. What do they comprise of a dispute? What is left to sanction right now? Well, in the last two years there is hardly anything left when it comes to Russia to sanction by the Europeans and by the US. So now they are basically listing individual entities, mostly some individuals and some of the what they claim to be armed producing groups, not only in Russia but also in other countries, for example, China, Hong Kong and so forth. Claiming that these entities have some links with Russians, they help them produce weapons and hence there should be sanctions against them. So US 13th round of sanctions are primarily related to the sanctioning around 200 odd individuals and entities which basically easily deal with the weapon manufacturing in Russia. Right, so how have these sanctions fared over the past two years, not just the EU sanctions but also US sanctions? I guess the original intent when it was imposed was there was an expectation that there would be a drastic collapse, followed by mass discontent in Russia which would probably overthrow the Putin regime, probably that was the calculation. But what has been the result of all these sanctions? Well, it is quite obvious if you see that the way Russian economy is performing, the way we do not find any large scale opposition to Russia's war what it is called in Ukraine inside the country, we do not see isolation of Russia at the global level as well. In fact, Russia has expanded the number of countries with which it has, you can say better diplomatic relations than ever since 1990s. For example, its participation in BRICS basically has led to an expansion of that grouping. Then the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, another grouping where it is has been expanded in the last two years. And if you see, as I said before, the Russian economy is in fact as per the IMF estimates is in fact instead of contracting, it has basically expanded in the last two years. Given the amount of oil it is able to sell across the world, the gas it is able to sell across the world, its exports also have diversified and its local manufacturing in fact has grown ever since the sanctions have been imposed. So, unlike the intentions, it seems that the sanctions have helped Russia kind of consolidates its economy and emerge as much more positive player in the global politics than ever before. On the other hand, if you see because of the sanctions, European economies have suffered one of their worst economic crisis since 1990s at least. There are protests going on inside European countries by the farmers, by other working class sections, which have claimed that because of the sanction policies, one of the reasons of course, apart from the other things, their income has suffered and in fact they have opposed sanctions against Russians. And their country's position to kind of fund the Ukrainian war, taxing the working classes and the farmers in their own countries. So it seems whatever was the intention it has basically played as a kind of boon for the Russians at least the sanctions imposed by both the US and the European Union. So, Abdul, so two years into the war, what does the strategy of the Western countries at this point seem because both from a military and a financial perspective because we don't see any major breakthroughs happening on the battlefront. In fact, Ukraine lost Avdivka recently as well. So what seems to be the plan for these countries in the coming months? Well, it's difficult to find out or point out a concrete strategy with which the Europeans or the US are working in the Israel, sorry, in the Russia, Ukraine conflict or the war. If you see they have continued since the first day of the war to kind of pursue a kind of policy, which basically to demonize Russia completely delegitimates its claims about its security, about the expansion of NATO, about the problems with the Russian speaking population was facing inside Ukraine. So they have completely rejected all these Russian claims and try to portray it as a demon, which basically is expansionist wants to expand and so and so forth, which of course seems unrealistic. And now that after two years, this particular propaganda, it seems have run its course and that is the amount of popular support it had in the initial days, at least in Europe and US has also gone down tremendously because the emptiness behind this slogan has been exposed. Despite that, Europeans and the US continue to pitch the same line and continue to kind of demand more money from their taxpayers to kind of to send to Ukraine. If you see there is already a bill pending in the US for billions of dollars of aid for Ukraine. European Union has recently approved $54 billion aid for Ukrainians for Ukraine. All of this money of course is coming from the taxpayers in both European Union and US and despite the fact that they are having economic issues. So they continue to pitch a kind of anti Russia slogans and continue to fund the war in Ukraine without kind of hoping. At least they have also admitted that there is no movement on the battleground at least after the failure of the counter offensive at least. Ukrainian counter offensive so called counter offensive that there is no gain on the on at the battleground and the vice course would have been to kind of look for a political solution but that is not happening. There is no attempt to explore that option and they continue to pitch the same line which they have been doing for last two years. Abdul, thank you so much for that analysis on both these topics we'll come back to you in future episodes as well. That's all we have in today's daily debrief we'll be back back with a fresh episode tomorrow. In the meantime do visit our website peoplesdispatch.org follow us on all the social media platforms and if you are watching this on YouTube please hit the subscribe button.