Pakistan says Israeli occupation continued to severely impede the exercise of the right to self-determination by the Palestinians. Delivering the oral statement before the International Court of Justice at The Hague today, Minister for Law and Justice Ahmed Irfan Aslam said that Israeli policies and practices amounted to systematic racial discrimination and apartheid against the Palestinians. He said that through its illegal settlement policy, Israel is trying to create irreversible facts on the ground, perpetuate its illegal occupation, and deny access to the Holy places in Jerusalem. The Minister said the ICJ would fail to discharge its judicial functions if it did not stop Israel from profiting from its own continued grave wrongs. The oral hearing comes at a time when the Palestinians are facing a brutal onslaught from the Israeli occupation forces. Pakistan has been calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, provision of sufficient, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian assistance to the b esieged people of Gaza, and the need for a just, comprehensive and durable solution through the establishment of a secure, viable, contiguous and sovereign State of Palestine on the basis of the pre-June 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital. Source: Radio Pakistan