A top UN court is holding hearings on genocide charges against Israel
South Africa’s Case for Genocide in the Gaza War: The International Court of Justice revisits the case for a U.N. advisory opinion
Israel is back on the International Court of Justice’s docket next month, when hearings open into a U.N. request for a non-binding advisory opinion on the legality of Israeli policies in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Two days of preliminary hearings begin with lawyers for South Africa explaining why the country has accused Israel of “acts and omissions” that are “genocidal in character” in the Gaza war and why it is calling for the court to issue an interim order for an immediate halt to Israel’s military actions. A decision will take a long time.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Judges at the International Court of Justice on Thursday opened two days of legal arguments in a case filed by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide in its Gaza war. Israel is not in a position to accept the allegation.
She said in an email to The Associated Press that it was not just a matter of killing enormous numbers of people. “There must be an intent to destroy a group of people (classified by race or religion for example) in whole or in part, in a particular place.”
The world court has never made a decision on who is responsible for genocide. The closest it came was in 2007, when it ruled that Serbia ” violated the obligation to prevent genocide” in the July 1995 slaughter of Muslims in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica.
The Israeli Defense of the Inspiral of Hamas in Gaza Revisited: South Africa’s Opposition to Israel’s “Ofensive”
“It is particularly galling, given that those who are attacking Israel — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, as well as their supporter Iran — continue to call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews,” he said.
The lawyers and experts on behalf of South Africa presented evidence that argued that the three-month military campaign by Israel in Gaza has gone beyond a war with Hamas, which killed hundreds of people and took more than 200 hostages. They argued Israel’s offensive now includes all 2 million Palestinians who reside in Gaza.
A ruling may not come for years. A court could direct Israel to stop its campaign in Gaza if it ordered it to do so in an emergency injunction, as South Africa did on Thursday. Any such provisional ruling could come within weeks, but it’s unclear whether Israel would follow any such ruling.
Israel has no intentions of occupying or evicting the civilians of Gaza, he said. “Israel is fighting Hamas terrorists, not the Palestinian population, and we are doing so in full compliance with international law.”
“I think that they have come because of the desire to be found not guilty of genocide,” said McIntyre, a law professor at the University of South Australia.
The case also evokes issues central to South Africa’s own identity: Its governing party, the African National Congress, has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Black people to “homelands” before ending in 1994.
Protesters rallied outside the court for a second day, to show their displeasure over the core of the case. The table and chairs were empty as the pro-Israeli demonstrators set up a table near the court grounds for a Sabbath meal. Nearby, over 100 pro-Palestinian protesters waved flags and shouted protests.
Lawyers for South Africa want judges to order Israel to stop its military campaign in Gaza at Thursday’s hearings.
Israel’s War on Gaza: A “Graceyard for Children,” Israel and the “Screaming to the Heavens” of the Palestinians
About two-thirds of the dead in Gaza are women and children, according to health officials there. The death toll does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
“This killing is nothing short of destruction of Palestinian life,” Hassim said. It is done deliberately. No one will be spared. Not a newborn baby. The scale of Palestinian child killings in Gaza is such that U.N. chiefs have described it as a ‘graveyard for children.’ “
The violence and destruction in Palestine and Israel did not start until Oct. 7, 2023. The Palestinians have experienced systematic oppression and violence for the last 76 years,” said South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Accused of committing genocide against Palestinians, Israel defended its war in Gaza at the United Nations’ highest court Friday, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the allegations as hypocrisy that “screams to the heavens.”
The case strikes at the heart of Israel’s national identity, which is rooted in the country’s creation as a Jewish state after the Nazi slaughter of 6 million Jews during World War II.
The White House declined to comment on how it might respond if the court determines Israel committed genocide. But National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called the allegations “unfounded.”
Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has vehemently denied the accusations brought by South Africa in one of the biggest cases ever to come before an international court, one that has drawn international attention and protesters from both sides to the courthouse.
“The scale of destruction in Gaza, the targeting of family homes and civilians, the war being a war on children — all make clear that genocidal intent is both understood and has been put into practice. The articulated intent is the destruction of Palestinian life,” lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said in opening statements Thursday.
Words are cheap in an age of social media and identity politics. The temptation to reach for the most outrageous term to vilify and demonize has become, for many, irresistible,” Israeli legal advisor Tal Becker told a packed auditorium at the ornate Palace of Peace in The Hague.
Becker told the court that South Africa’s case hinges on a “deliberately curated, decontextualized and manipulative description of the reality of current hostilities,” and that it intentionally ignored the role of Hamas in Israel’s military response.
Becker says the application is trying to invoke this term in the context of Israel’s conduct in a war it didn’t start and didn’t want.
Israel’s opening arguments to the court on Friday were made by Tal Becker, an Israeli lawyer, who said that Israel was aware of why the Genocide Convention was adopted in the first place.
“This is a reference to the command of God to Saul of the destruction of an entire group of people and this was meant to justify genocide,” said South African legal scholar Temboka NgcuKaitobi, who said Netanyahu’s reference was meant to justify genocide.
The delegation from South Africa believes that genocidal intent is shown by the way Israel has begun it’s military campaign, as well as comments from leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu. In a speech to Israeli forces in October, Netanyahu talked about the story of a man from the Hebrew Bible who tried to destroy the Jewish people.
Hassim said the Israeli military dropped 6,000 bombs a week on Gaza, and dropped 2,000-pound bombs onto areas declared safe by Israel.
Derivative Effects of the International Court of Justice on States’ Constraints on the Rule of Law and the Importance of the Highest Order
In research of the International Court of Justice, a legal scholar found that states comply with only half of the rulings. It is believed that there are indirect effects.
The values of the international order are important for other states and the world community as a whole to have those values remain intact in the long term.
