Julia Sebutinde, the current president of the International Court of Justice, has been accused of plagiarizing parts of her dissenting views in the court's advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

In July of last year, a panel of 15 judges found that Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory was “illegal,” and that its “near-total segregation” of people in the occupied West Bank violated international laws on “racial segregation” and “apartheid.”

While most of the judges agreed, Sebutinde rejected the court's findings, stating that the case should be settled through negotiations between the parties.

Palestine scholar Zachary Foster pointed out the alleged plagiarism in a post on X on Sunday, January 26, 2025.

In a dissenting opinion section, Sebutinde wrote: “Territorially, the name ‘Palestine’ was vaguely applied to an area that for 400 years before World War I had been part of the Ottoman Empire.

“In 135 CE, after crushing the second Jewish rebellion in the province of Judea or Judah, the Romans renamed that province “Syria Palestina” (or “Syria Palestina”). The Romans did this as a punishment, to spite the “Yehudim” (Jewish residents) and erase the connection between them and their province (known in Hebrew as Judah).

The name "Palestine" was used in reference to the people known as Philistines who were found along the Mediterranean coast.

The three sentences appear to be taken, almost verbatim, from a December 2021 article by Douglas J. Feith at the Hudson Institute.

Feith, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a conservative, Likud-leaning think tank, was undersecretary of defense for policy in the administration of President George W. Bush from July 2001 to August 2005, setting U.S. strategy for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

During that time, Feith was in charge of a key Pentagon office that produced "inappropriately written intelligence assessments prior to the March 2003 invasion alleging links between al-Qaeda and Iraq that were contradicted by the U.S. intelligence consensus."

In 1996, Feith co-wrote a policy paper for then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that suggested that Israel consider removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and engaging militarily with Syria using proxy forces.

Faith's Hudson Institute article is not cited in the bibliography for Sebutinde's dissenting opinion.

Foster noted in his article that Sebutinde also quoted several sentences from the Jewish Virtual Library, changing a few words.

“When the distinguished Arab-American historian, Professor Philip Hitti, testified against the partition of Mandatory Palestine before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946, he said, ‘There is no such thing as “Palestine” in history; not at all,’” Sebutinde wrote.

A very similar line on the Myths and Facts page of the Jewish Virtual Library reads: “When the distinguished Arab-American historian, Professor Philip Hitti of Princeton University, testified against partition before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946, he said: ‘There is no such thing as “Palestine” in history, ever.’”

The name "Palestine" was used in reference to the people known as Philistines who were found along the Mediterranean coast.

The three sentences appear to be taken, almost word for word, from a December 2021 article by Douglas J. Feith at the Hudson Institute.

Feith, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, was undersecretary of defense for policy in the administration of President George W. Bush from July 2001 to August 2005, where he developed U.S. strategy for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

During that time, Feith was in charge of a key Pentagon office that produced "inadequately written intelligence assessments prior to the March 2003 invasion alleging links between al-Qaeda and Iraq that were contradicted by the U.S. intelligence consensus."

Missing citations

In 1996, Feith co-wrote a policy paper for then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that suggested that Israel consider removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, and engaging militarily with Syria using proxy forces.

Faith's Hudson Institute article is not cited in the bibliography for Sebutinde's dissenting opinion.

Middle East Eye has contacted the ICJ and Faith for comment.

Foster noted in his article that Sebutinde also quoted several sentences from the Jewish Virtual Library, changing some words.

“When the distinguished Arab-American historian, Professor Philip Hitti, testified against the partition of Mandatory Palestine before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946, he said, ‘There is no such thing as Palestine in history; not at all,’” Sebutinde wrote.

Foster highlighted four sentences from the dissenting opinion borrowed from the Jewish Virtual Library. The site was not mentioned in the Ugandan judge's citations.

The Jewish Virtual Library is part of the American-Israeli Cooperative Project, which says it "provides facts about the Arab-Israeli conflict" and combats "the delegitimization of Israel."

Dissenting voice

Sebutinde became president of the International Court of Justice earlier this month, challenging the court’s decision to appoint its former president, Nawaf Salam, as Lebanon’s next prime minister. In January of last year, the ICJ issued an interim ruling calling on Israel to refrain from obstructing aid deliveries to Gaza and to improve the humanitarian situation. It also ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide in the besieged enclave and to punish incitement to genocide, among other orders.

Sebutinde, described by Israeli media as “pro-Israel,” was the only judge on the 17-member panel to vote against all six measures adopted by the court. Israeli Justice Aharon Barak also voted against several of the measures.

The dissenting opinion prompted Uganda to distance itself from Sebutinde.

“The position taken by Justice Sebutinde is her individual and independent opinion and does not in any way reflect the position of the Government of the Republic of Uganda,” a government spokesman said in a statement at the time.

They added that Kampala supports the Non-Aligned Movement's position on the war, which was adopted at a summit in the Ugandan capital. The Non-Aligned Movement condemned Israel's war on Gaza and its killing of civilians.