South Africa files case at ICJ accusing Israel of ‘genocidal acts’ in Gaza
Israel, which has been accused of meting out
collective punishment on Palestinians, has rejected the case at the UN court.
29 Dec 2023
South Africa has filed a case against Israel at the
International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing it of crimes of genocide against
Palestinians in Gaza after nearly three months of relentless Israeli
bombardment has killed more than 21,500 people and caused widespread
destruction in the besieged enclave.
In an application to the court on Friday, South Africa
described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocidal in character because they are
intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the
Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group”.
“The acts in question include killing Palestinians in
Gaza, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, and inflicting on them
conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction,” the
application said.
The ICJ, also called the World Court, is a UN civil
court that adjudicates disputes between countries. It is distinct from the
International Criminal Court (ICC), which prosecutes individuals for war
crimes.
As members of the UN, both South Africa and Israel are
bound by the court.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has compared
Israel’s policies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank with his country’s past
apartheid regime of racial segregation imposed by the white-minority rule that
ended in 1994.
Several human rights organisations have said that
Israeli policies towards Palestinians amount to apartheid.
Global condemnation
South Africa said Israel’s conduct, particularly since
the war began on October 7, violates the UN’s Genocide Convention, and called
for an expedited hearing. The application also requests the court to indicate
provisional measures to “protect against further, severe and irreparable harm
to the rights of the Palestinian people” under the Convention.
“South Africa is gravely concerned with the plight of
civilians caught in the present Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip due to the
indiscriminate use of force and forcible removal of inhabitants,” a statement
from South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation
(DIRCO) said, adding that the country has “repeatedly stated that it condemns
all violence and attacks against all civilians, including Israelis.”
“South Africa has continuously called for an immediate
and permanent ceasefire and the resumption of talks that will end the violence
arising from the continued belligerent occupation of Palestine,” the statement
added.
Israel has rejected global calls for a ceasefire
saying the war would not stop until the Hamas group, whose October 7 attack
triggered the current phase of the conflict, was destroyed. Some 1,200 people
were killed in the Hamas attack in Israel. The Palestinian group has said its
attack was against Israel’s 16-year-old blockade of Gaza and expansion of
settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Settlement expansions pose
the biggest hurdle in the realisation of a future Palestinian state comprising
Gaza, occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In the latest development in Israel’s war on Gaza,
tens of thousands of newly displaced Palestinians in the centre of the
Palestinian enclave on Friday were forced to flee further south as Israel
expanded its ground and air offensive in the centre of the enclave.
Israel has faced global condemnation for the mounting
toll and destruction and is accused of meting out collective punishment on the
Palestinian people.
‘A very important step’
The court application is the latest move by South
Africa, a vociferous critic of Israel’s war, to ratchet up pressure after its
lawmakers last month voted in favour of closing down the Israeli embassy in
Pretoria and suspending all diplomatic relations until a ceasefire was agreed.
Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from the
United Nations headquarters in New York, said the move was “clearly a very
important step to try to hold some accountability to Israel.”
“Now that South Africa is pushing this to the ICJ, it
will be on [the UN’s] agenda to try to make a ruling on this very important
question,” he added.
On November 16, a group of 36 UN experts called on the
international community to “prevent genocide against the Palestinian people”,
calling Israel’s actions since October 7 a “genocide in the making”.
Palestinians inspect the rubble of a building of the
Al Nawasrah family destroyed in an Israeli strike in Maghazi refugee camp, Dec.
25 [Adel Hana/AP Photo]
“We are deeply disturbed by the failure of governments
to heed our call and to achieve an immediate ceasefire. We are also profoundly
concerned about the support of certain governments for Israel’s strategy of
warfare against the besieged population of Gaza, and the failure of the
international system to mobilise to prevent genocide,” the experts said in a
statement.
Israel rejects South Africa’s accusations
Israel has rejected South Africa’s move as “baseless”,
calling it “blood libel.”
“South Africa’s claim lacks both a factual and a legal
basis, and constitutes despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the Court,”
Israel’s minister of foreign affairs, Lior Haiat, said in a statement posted on
X.
“Israel has made it clear that the residents of the
Gaza Strip are not the enemy and is making every effort to limit harm to the
non-involved and to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip,” the
statement added.
“It does rally public opinion to the reality of what’s
going on in Palestine, not just in Gaza but also in the West Bank,” said Al
Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara.
According to Article 2 of the Genocide Convention,
genocide involves acts committed with the “intent to destroy, either in whole
or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.”
“Where the disagreement lies is whether there is
intent or no intent,” Bishara said.
“The three leading Israeli officials have declared the
intent, starting with Israeli President Herzog when he said there are ‘no
innocents’ in Gaza, the defense minister who said Israel will impose collective
punishment on the people of Gaza because they are ‘human animals’,” Bishara
said, adding that prime minister Netanyahu also used a biblical analogy in a
statement widely interpreted as a genocidal call.
The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs welcomed
South Africa’s move and called on the ICJ to take immediate action to “prevent
further harm to the Palestinian people”.
“Israel’s stated policy, acts and omissions are
genocidal in character are committed with the requisite specific intent to
the destruction of the Palestinian people under its colonial occupation and
apartheid regime in violation of its obligations under the Genocide
Convention,” a statement by the ministry said.
“The State of Palestine appeals to the international
community and the Contracting Parties to the Convention to uphold their
obligations and support the Court in the proceedings.”
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
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