Israel faces accusations of genocide as South Africa takes the case to the UN Court
After three months of besieging and bombing the Gaza Strip in its war against Hamas, Israel was charged with genocide at the International Court of Justice on Thursday, as South Africa argued that Israel wants to “create conditions of death” in Gaza and demanded that the court order an emergency suspension of the military campaign.
South African lawyers presented their case before a packed courtroom in The Hague, offering as evidence the words of Israeli officials, including the Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who said in October that Israel would completely besiege the area because it was fighting “human animals.”
Israel categorically denies the accusation of genocide and will present its defense on Friday, the second part of the two-day hearing in the United Nations’ highest judicial body. The hearings will mark the first time Israel has chosen to personally defend itself in such an environment, a sign of the high stakes of the moment, with Israel’s international reputation in much of the world under threat because of the toll of his campaign in Gaza.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the proceedings on Thursday as “an upside-down world” in which his province faced such accusations.
“Israel is being accused of genocide at a time when it is fighting genocide,” he said, referring to the war in Gaza, which began after Hamas and other armed groups carried out attacks on October 7 that killed about 1,200 people and led to Israeli officials about 240 are taken hostage.
Genocide is among the most serious crimes a country can be accused of, and the accusation has special significance in Israel, which was founded after the slaughter of Jews during the Holocaust. While the South African government insists it is continuing its cause to stop a genocide, analysts say it is also motivated by longstanding domestic support for the Palestinian cause, dating back to the presidency of Nelson Mandela, a staunch supporter of the Palestinian rights.
To speak of genocide there must be a proven intention on the part of the perpetrators to physically destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. according to the UN Genocide Convention, to which Israel is a signatory. In such cases, however, intent is often the most difficult element to prove.
Judgments by the court are binding, but the court has few enforcement resources.
Israel’s closest ally, the United States, has staunchly defended the country’s campaign against Hamas, and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken this week called South Africa’s accusation “meritless” and “counterproductive.”
But US and European officials have pressed Israel in recent weeks to scale back the scope of its military operations, and many countries in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America have sharply criticized Israel for the devastating toll of its campaign against civilians in Gaza.
According to Gaza health officials, more than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the past three months, the majority of them women and children. The vast majority of the enclave’s 2.2 million residents have been driven from their homes since the start of the war, increasing the risk of disease and illness. hungryaccording to international organizations.
South Africa, which brought the case last month, argued that Israeli leaders and lawmakers had communicated an intention to commit genocide in their statements. A South African lawyer showed a video of Israeli troops dancing and singing that “there are no uninvolved civilians,” and said Israeli soldiers had “understood the inflammatory words” of their prime minister.
“There is an extraordinary feature of this case,” lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, told the court, “that Israel’s political leaders, military commanders and persons holding official positions have systematically and in explicit terms declared their genocidal intentions.”
He argued that Israel’s “genocidal intentions” were “rooted in the belief that the enemy is in fact not just the military wing of Hamas, or even Hamas in general, but is embedded in the fabric of Palestinian life in Gaza. ”
Although the legal proceedings on the genocide charges could take years, the court could rule on possible emergency measures in the coming weeks. As part of its request for emergency relief to end the military campaign, South Africa has asked the court to lift evacuation orders and allow people in Gaza to receive food, water, shelter and clothing.
Israeli officials have argued that Hamas should be charged with genocide and other crimes, and that many Israeli critics have not sufficiently condemned the group. A spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Lior Haiat, called Thursday’s proceedings “one of the greatest displays of hypocrisy in history,” adding that Hamas “calls in its convention for the destruction of the State of Israel and the murder on Jews.”
Mr Haiat also said the genocide case brought by South Africa ignores the atrocities committed by Hamas in the October 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel.
South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola condemned the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, but said the scale of Israel’s military response in Gaza was unjustified. He told the court that the Israeli offensive had created conditions for Gazans intended “to bring about their physical destruction.”
Mr Ngcukaitobi, the South African lawyer, said statements by Israeli officials such as Mr Gallant – who said after the Hamas attack that Israel would allow “no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel” into Gaza – amount to to a directive to physically destroy Gazans and to a “communicated state policy.”
“This leaves no room for ambiguity,” Mr Ngcukaitobi said. “It means creating conditions for the death of the Palestinian people in Gaza, dying a slow death from starvation and dehydration, or dying quickly from a bomb or a sniper, but dying anyway.”
Israeli leaders have said South Africa’s accusations distort the meaning of genocide and the purpose of the 1948 Genocide Convention. They point to millions of messages, sent in various ways, telling Gaza citizens to evacuate to safer areas before bombings take place, and say they are continuously working to increase the amount of aid entering Gaza.
Hamas welcomed South Africa’s decision to bring the case, saying in a statement Thursday that it looks forward to “a decision that does justice to the victims” and calling on Israel to “stop the aggression.”
The court proceedings were also celebrated by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where hundreds of people gathered in town squares, Palestinian news media showed. The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry, which partially oversees the territory, thanked South Africa in a statement, calling the proceedings “a historic event in the process of the joint Palestinian and South African struggle in the face of injustice and genocide.”
But in Gaza, many feared the case would have little or no effect on their reality. “It’s all nonsense – it’s been more than 90 days and all we hear is words,” said Abdul Qader Al-Atrash, a 32-year-old Gaza resident.
“Nothing will change,” he said. “All we are thinking about now is how to get water for our family, where to charge our phones and whether we will have something to eat tomorrow.”
Reporting was contributed by Isabel Kershner, John Eligon, Ameera Harouda, Abu Bakr Bashir, Anushka Patil And Rawan Sheikh Ahmad.