ICJ President ‘Plagiarized 32 Percent of Pro-Israel Dissenting Opinion’

Date: 04 February 2025 - 21:56

News ID: ۱۳۶۵۵۷

THE HAGUE (Dispatches) – Fresh allegations have emerged of Julia Sebutinde, acting president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), appearing to plagiarize large sections of her dissenting opinion on the Zionist regime’s occupation of Palestine.
Last month, Sebutinde, who arguably holds the most prestigious judicial position, was accused of directly lifting sentences almost word for word in her dissenting opinion written on July 19.
A study seen by Middle East Eye compiled by Majd Abuamer, a Palestinian researcher at the Doha Institute, for an upcoming book by U.S. scholar Norman Finkelstein has now alleged that “at least 32 percent of Sebutinde’s dissent was plagiarized”.
The research will be presented as part of a chapter in Finkelstein’s upcoming book Gaza Gravediggers, which will be published in June.
Last July, a 15-judge panel found that the Zionist regime’s decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories was “unlawful” and that its “near-complete separation” of people in the occupied West Bank breached international laws concerning “racial segregation” and “apartheid”.
While most judges agreed with the advisory opinion, Sebutinde rejected the findings.
When contacted by MEE for a response, Sebutinde declined to comment on the plagiarism allegations.
Finkelstein told MEE that when he initially read the Ugandan judge’s dissenting opinion in July, he found it to be “bizarre”, and suspected that sentences may have been plagiarized.
“So I posted on my Twitter account: ‘Would anyone care to volunteer to help me track down some plagiarism?’” the writer and scholar said.
Following Finkestein’s call-out on X, formerly known as Twitter, Abuamer, who grew up in Gaza, responded with a thorough examination of the document.
“He’s very precise. He finds 32.2 percent of her dissent was plagiarized,” said Finkelstein.
One of the sources Abuamer found that Sebutinde repeatedly borrowed sentences from, word for word, is a video by conservative activist David Brog, entitled “Why isn’t there a Palestinian state?”
Not all of the sources that Sebutinde took sentences from are pro-Israeli or conservative. Abuamer finds that several sections are directly lifted from Wikipedia and BBC News.