'The Lord Is Counting on Me to Stand on the Side of Israel': ICJ Judge Reveals Her Bias
Judge Julia Sebutinde, a Christian Zionist, was the sole dissenting vote on the ICJ ruling on Israel's illegal occupation and the only one to vote against all six 'provisional measures' for Gaza.
On July 19, 2024, Judge Julia Sebutinde of Uganda shocked the legal world by casting the sole dissenting vote to the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) finding that Israel was “under an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities, and to evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Her finding came despite that for decades – until a recent Trump-led U-turn – the notion that Israeli colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank were illegal under international law had been a largely unanimous, undisputed fact, even among Israel’s staunchest allies. The academic community had been baffled by her determination, unable to explain such an unusual vote. But according to recent revelations, Sebutinde, who was also the only judge to vote against all six provisional measures the ICJ issued in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, has admitted she did it because “the Lord” was counting on her “to stand on the side of Israel.”
To Sebutinde, like many Christian Zionists, what is happening in the Middle East is a sign that the “End Times” are here. "I have a very strong conviction that we are in the End Times,” she said, according to the independent Ugandan newspaper, the Daily Monitor. “I want to be on the right side of history. I am convinced that time is running out…I am humbled that God has allowed me to be part of the last days." The legal world is now shocked all over again. What happens when a judge at one of the highest judicial offices in the world admits she has a religious duty to side with one of the parties in a dispute? Can you imagine if a Muslim judge on the Court had said Allah told him to side with Palestine?