The International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands has begun the first day of a two-day trial charging the Israeli government with genocide against the Palestinian people due to the 96-day long bombardment and invasion of every part of the Gaza Strip.
South Africa filed the suit with the International Criminal Court charging Israel with “acts of genocide” with an 84-page application laying out the case against Israel.
Today, on Thursday, the 15-judge panel of the International Court of Justice will hear the case from the South African legal team for three hours, and the session will be adjourned for deliberation. On Friday, the Court will hear the response from the Israeli state, and then the session will be adjourned to consider the case and issue a decision.
According to the case submitted by South Africa, Israel has violated its obligations under the United Nations Charter by committing acts of genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
According to the submission from South Africa, “Israel, since 7 October 2023 in particular, has failed to prevent genocide and has failed to prosecute the direct and public incitement to genocide. More gravely still, Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Those acts include killing them, causing them serious mental and bodily harm and deliberately inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction as a group. Repeated statements by Israeli State representatives, including at the highest levels, by the Israeli President, Prime Minister, and Minister of Defence express genocidal intent.”
In the application submitted to the International Court of Justice, South Africa requested that the Court implement “interim measures in order to protect against further serious and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention, and to ensure Israel’s compliance with its obligations under the Convention not to engage in, prevent and punish genocide.”
The International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was signed by 153 countries, including Israel, was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1948, and entered into force on January 12, 1951. The decisions of the International Court of Justice are binding on all signatory states – not only by not committing the crime of genocide, but by preventing and punishing it.
Countries that have signed on to endorse and support the South African petition include Malaysia, Turkey, Bolivia, Nicaragua, The Maldives, Venezuela, Namibia, Jordan, Morocco, Iran, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
According to the South African petition, in describing the situation in Gaza, “Veteran humanitarian workers, who have served in war and disaster zones all over the world, people who have already seen everything, say that they have never seen anything resembling what they’re seeing today in Gaza”. These workers have described the current situation in Gaza as “apocalyptic”, “a living hell”, “a war in which everything is unprecedented”.
The petition notes that each day since October 7th, an average of 115 children are being killed each day in Gaza. The spokesman for UNICEF, James Elder, is quoted in the petition that Gaza has become “a cemetery for children”.
Israel chose retired judge Aharon Barak, former president of the Israeli Supreme Court, to represent it in the team of judges of the International Court of Justice, in the context of the lawsuit filed by South Africa.
Since the seventh of last October, the Israeli military has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians and wounded 59,000, more than 70% of whom are women and children. More than 7,000 people remain missing under the rubble, and Israeli forces have engaged in massive infrastructure destruction and created an unprecedented health and humanitarian disaster.
British politician and former Labour party head Jeremy Corbyn is one of those supporting the South African case:
Ahead of South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, I spoke with @andrewfeinstein about our responsibility to speak up for Palestine, for peace and for our shared humanity. pic.twitter.com/55Mmqk0umr
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) January 10, 2024
