{"id":165023,"date":"2024-01-18T00:41:35","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T22:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/central-africa\/dr-congo\/world-court-to-hear-genocide-case-against-israel\/"},"modified":"2024-01-18T00:41:35","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T22:41:35","slug":"world-court-to-hear-genocide-case-against-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/central-africa\/dr-congo\/world-court-to-hear-genocide-case-against-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"World Court to hear Genocide Case Against Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The\u00a0International Court of Justice<\/a>\u00a0(ICJ)\u00a0hearings<\/a>\u00a0on January 11 and 12, 2024, on genocide in Gaza will include the first formal response by Israel before an independent and impartial court to allegations of atrocities against the Palestinian people since October 7, 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. On December 29,\u00a0South Africa<\/a>\u00a0filed\u00a0a case<\/a>\u00a0with the court alleging that\u00a0Israel<\/a>\u00a0is violating the\u00a01948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

On January 2, Israeli officials\u00a0confirmed<\/a>\u00a0that Israel would be represented at the ICJ to oppose the South African government\u2019s application. South Africa contends that Israel has violated the Genocide Convention by committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and by failing to prevent it, including by not holding senior Israeli officials and others accountable for their direct and public incitement to genocide.\u00a0The case is not a criminal proceeding against individuals but seeks a legal determination of state responsibility for genocide.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa\u2019s case is about Israel\u2019s obligations under the Genocide Convention and puts its conduct in Gaza in sharp focus before the United Nations\u2019 highest judicial body,\u201d said\u00a0Balkees Jarrah<\/a>, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cSouth Africa has asked the World Court to issue urgent measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza who face catastrophic living conditions as a result of\u00a0war crimes<\/span>\u00a0carried out by Israeli authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the case may take several years to reach a final ruling, South Africa has asked the court to order\u00a0provisional measures<\/a>\u00a0to protect the Palestinian people in Gaza from further harm, ensure Israel\u2019s compliance with the Genocide Convention, and safeguard South Africa\u2019s ability to have the case fairly adjudicated. South Africa has asked the ICJ to issue these measures \u201cas a matter of extreme urgency,\u201d saying that Palestinians in Gaza are in \u201curgent and severe need of the Court\u2019s protection.\u201d Arguments on the request for provisional measures are the subject of the January 11 and 12 hearings.<\/p>\n

Among the provisional measures sought are for Israel to immediately suspend its military operations in Gaza and abide by its obligations under the Genocide Convention. South Africa also seeks measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of any evidence related to the underlying case \u2013 including by giving\u00a0fact-finding missions<\/a>, international mandates, and other bodies access to Gaza.<\/p>\n

South Africa also asked the court to require Israel to report to it on steps taken to carry out a provisional measures order within a week of its issuance and then at regular intervals until the court issues its final ruling. In its oral arguments on January 11, South Africa\u00a0could specifically ask<\/a>\u00a0the court to make Israel\u2019s reports public.<\/p>\n

In its application to the ICJ, South Africa says that Israel is killing Palestinians in Gaza in large numbers, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, imposing measures intended to prevent Palestinian births, and inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of Palestinians as a group. South Africa cited expulsions and mass displacement; deprivation of access to adequate food and water, medical care, shelter, clothes, hygiene, and sanitation; and the destruction of the fabric of Palestinian life in Gaza.<\/p>\n

South Africa further contends\u00a0that<\/a>\u00a0the \u201cacts of genocide\u201d should be placed in \u201cthe broader context of Israel\u2019s conduct towards Palestinians during its 75-year-long apartheid, its 56-year-long belligerent occupation of Palestinian territory and its 16-year-long blockade of Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Africa contends that numerous\u00a0statements by Israeli political and military officials<\/a>\u00a0amount to evidence of a clear intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a group. It says that the \u201cclear inference from the acts of the Israeli army on the ground\u2026is that those genocidal statements and directives are being implemented against the Palestinian people.\u201d South Africa\u2019s application refers to\u00a0several<\/a>\u00a0statements<\/a>\u00a0by<\/a>\u00a0UN experts who have warned of a risk of genocide.<\/p>\n

The court will hear Israel\u2019s formal response on January 12. Israel\u2019s Foreign Affairs Ministry, in a published statement on December 29, 2023,\u00a0described<\/a>\u00a0South Africa\u2019s application as \u201cblood libel\u201d and that the claim \u201clacks both a factual and a legal basis and constitutes despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the Court.\u201d One media report said that the Israeli Foreign Ministry\u00a0instructed<\/a>\u00a0its diplomats to press officials in their host countries to issue statements against South Africa’s case. The Israeli foreign minister has also specifically\u00a0urged<\/a>\u00a0the United Kingdom to oppose South Africa\u2019s application. The media reported on January 9 that UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0that he did not think the ICJ case was helpful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The United States National Security Council spokesman\u00a0described South Africa\u2019s application<\/a>\u00a0as \u201cmeritless, counterproductive, and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.\u201d The US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller\u00a0said separately<\/a>\u00a0that Washington had not \u201cat this point seen acts that constitute genocide\u201d and that the ICJ case was \u201cnot a productive step at this time.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

A number of parties to the Genocide Convention have welcomed South Africa\u2019s application including\u00a0Bangladesh<\/a>,\u00a0Bolivia<\/a>,<\/u>\u00a0Jordan<\/a>,<\/u>\u00a0Malaysia<\/a>, the\u00a0Maldives<\/a>,\u00a0Pakistan<\/a>,\u00a0Palestine<\/a>,\u00a0Turkey<\/a>,\u00a0Nambia<\/a>,\u00a0Nicaragua<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Venezuela<\/a>. The\u00a0Organization of Islamic Cooperation<\/a>\u00a0also issued a statement in support of the case.\u00a0France\u2019s UN ambassador<\/a>\u00a0in New York said France is a strong supporter of the ICJ and would back the court\u2019s decisions.\u00a0Governments should speak out in support of ICJ proceedings and publicly commit to supporting\u00a0compliance<\/a>\u00a0with the court\u2019s decisions, Human Rights Watch said.<\/p>\n

Israeli authorities and Palestinian armed groups have committed serious abuses during the current hostilities. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups deliberately killed hundreds of civilians in Israel on October 7 and took more than 200\u00a0hostages<\/a>. The Israeli government then cut electricity, fuel, food and water to Gaza\u2019s population and severely curtailed life-saving humanitarian aid, all acts of\u00a0collective punishment<\/span>, a war crime. Israeli authorities are also using\u00a0starvation<\/a>\u00a0of civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza, which is also a war crime, Human Rights Watch said.<\/p>\n

Past ICJ practice suggests that a decision on provisional measures could be delivered within weeks. Though such an order would be legally binding on Israel, it would not prejudge the merits of the allegations that Israel has violated the Genocide Convention. A provisional measures order is automatically sent to the UN Security Council pending a final decision in the case.<\/p>\n

The ICJ\u00a0is composed<\/a>\u00a0of 15 judges elected by the UN General Assembly and Security Council for nine-year terms. When two countries have a dispute and the court does not include their nationals on the bench, the governments\u00a0can appoint<\/a>\u00a0ad-hoc judges to hear that specific matter. In this case, South Africa\u00a0has appointed<\/a>\u00a0Dikgang Moseneke<\/a>, former deputy chief justice\u00a0of South Africa, and Israel\u00a0has appointed<\/a>\u00a0Aharon Barak, a retired Israeli Supreme Court president, as ad-hoc judges.<\/p>\n

South Africa, which ratified the Genocide Convention in 1998, brought its case under article 9 of the convention, which allows for disputes between parties to be submitted to the ICJ. The court previously confirmed that all member states of the convention have a duty to prevent and to punish genocide. Israel has been a party to the Genocide Convention since 1951.<\/p>\n

South Africa together with Bangladesh, Bolivia, the Comoros, and Djibouti also\u00a0referred<\/a>\u00a0the Palestine situation to the International Criminal Court prosecutor in November 2023. South Africa asked the prosecutor, Karim Khan, to investigate the crime of genocide among other grave abuses in Palestine with a view to charging the individuals responsible. Khan\u00a0confirmed<\/a>\u00a0that his office has been conducting, since March 2021, an investigation into alleged atrocity crimes committed in Gaza and the West Bank since 2014, and that he has jurisdiction over crimes in the current hostilities between Israel and Palestinian armed groups that covers unlawful conduct by all parties. He\u00a0visited<\/a>\u00a0Israel and Palestine in December.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0related matter<\/a>, in December 2022 the UN General Assembly\u00a0requested an advisory opinion<\/a>\u00a0from the ICJ on the legal consequences of Israel\u2019s prolonged occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The General Assembly first asked the ICJ for an advisory opinion related to the Occupied Palestinian Territory 20 years ago. In 2004, the\u00a0ICJ\u2019s advisory opinion<\/a>\u00a0found that the route of Israel\u2019s separation barrier violated international law and that it should be dismantled. The December 2022 request is wider in scope. South Africa, among other countries,\u00a0filed a written statement<\/a>\u00a0in the proceeding. The ICJ\u00a0will convene public hearings<\/a>\u00a0on the request starting on February 19.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many more alarm bells have to ring and how many more civilians must unlawfully suffer or be killed before governments take action,\u201d Jarrah said. \u201cSouth Africa\u2019s genocide case unlocks a legal process at the world\u2019s highest court to credibly examine Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza in the hopes of curtailing further suffering.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).<\/i><\/p>\n