South Africa Files A Case Against Israel In A Un Court, Alleging Genocide

 KEYTAKEWAYS:

• With its military campaign in Gaza, South Africa has accused Israel of genocide and filed a case against the state at the UN's International Court of Justice (ICJ).
• With a "blood libel" response to the accusations, Israel urged the International Court of Justice to reject South Africa's case.
• Although South Africa has requested that the International Court of Justice convene in the coming days to issue "provisional measures" calling for a ceasefire, any matter pending at the ICJ is likely to occupy several years to resolve. Despite being legally obligated to stop its offensive in Ukraine, Russia disregarded the International Court of Justice's March 2022 order. However, a decision of this kind is probably going to have a big impact on public opinion around the world.

            WHAT IS THE REASON BEHIND THE FILING?

• For many years, South Africa has supported Palestinian statehood both nationally and internationally, including at the UN. South Africa compares the treatment of its Black citizens during the apartheid era to that of Palestinians living under occupation.
• Similar comparisons have been made by a number of prominent international human rights organizations, which have labelled Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people as apartheid—a term that Israel vehemently disputes.
• South Africa uses the treatment of Palestinians before the most recent war as a pretext for what it claims is an ongoing genocide in its application to the International Court of Justice.
• The application claims that Israel has failed to stop genocide against a backdrop of apartheid, expulsion, racial cleansing, the annexation the occupation, prejudice, and the continuous denial of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination. This is especially true since October 7, 2023.
• In its application, South Africa also stated that it repeatedly expressed its concerns to Israel regarding the military actions in Gaza but got no response.
• The nation expressed concerns that Israel was approaching the threshold for genocide in a formal, unsigned diplomatic note sent to the Israeli embassy on December 21. According to the application, Israel did not immediately reply to the note.
• Consequently, South Africa finally decided to file the application, pleading with the international court to consider its allegation of genocide and compel Israel to reply.

           WHAT IS THE GENOCIDE CONVENTION?

• When this comes to the issue of genocide, international law acknowledges its meaning laid out in Article II of the UN's Genocide Convention as well as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
• Acts "committed with desire to massacre, in entire or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group" are defined as genocide according to this definition, which is acknowledged by more than 130 nations, including the US, Germany, France, and the UK.
• Since both South Africa and Israel have ratified the Genocide Convention, they are required to "take measures to prevent and to punish the crime of genocide," which may include passing laws or bringing legal action against those found guilty of the crime.
• In reaction to the Holocaust, which claimed the lives of six million Jews during World War 2, the convention was formally established on December 9, 1948.

            GENOCIDAL ACTS COMMITTED AGAINST PALESTINIANS

• In the application, South Africa sets out several acts carried out by Israel since 7 October which it asserts are "genocidal in character".
• The first act consists of the murder of over 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the bulk of them being women and children. Although Israel claims that its military is aiming to destroy Hamas and is not targeting civilians, others, including the US, an ally of Israel, have called the campaign of aerial bombing "indiscriminate."
• Apart from the murders, Israel has also caused injuries to over 55,000 Palestinians in the enclave. According to South Africa, this qualifies as "causing bodily harm" to a group of people under the definition of the Genocide Convention.
• The application from South Africa also draws attention to Israel's bombardment and siege of hospitals, claiming that this is contributing to the deaths of Palestinians.
• "There are no functioning healthcare facilities in the North of Gaza, in specific, such that wounded people are reduced to 'waiting to pass away', unable to obtain surgery or medical care above first aid, dying slow, painful deaths from their injuries or from resultant diseases," the application stated.
• Other "genocidal acts" that South Africa cites are the widespread forced relocation and bombing of residential areas, the denial of sufficient food and water, the taking of Palestinian lives in Gaza, and the imposition of restrictions meant to stop Palestinians from having children.
• According to the application, Israel has attacked the foundations and infrastructure of Palestinian life throughout Gaza, purposefully establishing circumstances that will result in the physical extermination of Palestinian people.
• Apart from the assaults mentioned earlier on houses, communities, medical facilities, water infrastructure, farms, bakeries, and mills, Israel has also targeted Gaza's fundamental civil system.
• Eighty-five percent of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have been forced to flee their homes due to damage or destruction caused by Israel's bombardment of the enclave.
• Israel has targeted over 100 historical sites, including mosques, churches, and universities, with bombs.

GENOCIDAL INTENT FROM ISRAELI OFFICIALS

• Due to the convention's definition requiring clear intent to commit the acts, cases involving genocide are frequently deemed difficult to prove.
• Throughout its military campaign, Israel's military has made it clear that it is solely targeting Hamas and has no intention of killing civilians.

• However, the application from South Africa also includes a number of quotes from Israeli officials that the country claims demonstrate its clear intent to carry out genocide or to fail to stop it.
• One of the instances given was on October 12, when Israeli President Isaac Herzog declared that there was no difference in Gaza between armed combatants and civilians.
• There is a whole country at fault for this. This rhetoric about civilians being unaware or uninvolved is untrue. It's not true at all. … and we won't stop fighting until their backbone is broken, Herzog declared.
• Défense Minister Yoav Gallant referred to the people living in Gaza as "human animals" and declared that Israel was enforcing a complete siege on the enclave, cutting off water and electricity. This announcement was made on October 9.
• In a televised speech on November 10, 2023, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir declared that when Israel declares it will destroy Hamas, it includes all of its supporters, celebrants, and candy-handlers because they are all terrorists and ought to be destroyed as well.
• The following day, November 11, Israel's minister of agriculture declared, "[W]e are now actually rolling out the Gaza Nakba," alluding to the slaughter and forcible expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the 1948 creation of Israel.

WHO ELSE HAS DESCRIBED WHAT’S GOING ON AS GENOCIDE?

• Even though South Africa was the first nation to file an application with the ICJ since the war started in October, numerous other nations, people, and organizations have declared Israel's actions in Gaza to be genocide.
• The presidents of Algeria, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Iran, Turkey, and Venezuela, along with Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, have all called Israel's actions a genocide.
• Two weeks into the conflict, over 800 academics—among them notable Holocaust researchers and experts on genocide—wrote a letter alerting the world community to Israel's potential for committing genocide against the people of Gaza.
• Since then, a number of senior UN representatives have also voiced dire concerns that Israel might be carrying out genocide.
• Eight UN special rapporteurs stated on November 2 that they are still convinced that there is a serious risk of genocide against the Palestinian people. On November 16, two weeks later, fifteen UN special rapporteurs issued a warning, stating that Israel's response to the attacks on October 7 "points to a genocide in the making."
• The "text-book case of genocide" occurring in Gaza was the reason given by Craig Mokhiber, the director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR), for his resignation at the end of October.
• Another lawsuit describing Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide was filed in the United States prior to South Africa's submission. A lawsuit accusing the United States of failing to stop a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza was filed on November 13 by a number of Palestinian families supported by the Centre for Constitutional Rights.
• The lawsuit makes a similar argument to South Africa's, claiming that the US is complicit in Israel's actions and has failed to stop genocide because it is a party to the Genocide Convention and supports Israel militarily and diplomatically.

            WHAT IS THE ICJ AND WILL A DECISION HAVE ANY IMPACT?

• One of the six main UN bodies, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is distinct from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which prosecutes people for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
• Although the court can resolve international disputes, it lacks the authority to impose its rulings, even though they are legally binding.
• As MEE has previously reported, analysts have stated that although the ICJ's rulings are hard to implement, they have the power to change perceptions globally. Furthermore, expressing an opinion on the question of whether or not Israel is perpetrating genocide could seriously damage Israel's standing abroad and its diplomatic ties with other nations.
• Though it's unlikely that anything will change for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and apartheid, an ICJ ruling would be a symbolic victory for Palestinians on the international scene. US policy fellow Tariq Kenney-Shawa of Al-Shabaka, The Palestinian Policy Network, previously told Middle East Eye about an earlier International Court of Justice investigation into war crimes that Israel was allegedly accused of committing against the Palestinian people.
• Kenney-Shawa went on to say that should the ICJ rule against Israel, it would probably be the most recent illustration of the fundamental flaws in the international legal system, which depends on enforcement by a small number of strong nations, primarily the US and the West, who are among Israel's most ardent supporters.
• After Kyiv filed an application claiming Russia of genocide over its takeover of the country, the ICJ sided with Ukraine in March 2022. Russia was ordered by the court to stop its military activities in the nation.
• Russia's military operations in the nation are still ongoing, nearly two years later, and there is currently no end in sight.
• Still, the present case laid out against Israel has prompted it to abandon its decades-long practice of overlooking the court. Even as it becomes more isolated internationally due to its attack on Gaza, the nation is defending itself against the accusations, with support from nations like Turkey and Malaysia.
• In an interview with Democracy Now, international human rights attorney Francis Boyle, who previously worked on the Bosnian genocide case, predicted that South Africa would win an injunction against Israel.

CONCLUSION

• South Africa has launched a case against Israel at the UN's international court of justice (ICJ), accusing the state of committing genocide in its military campaign in Gaza. Israel responded to the allegations with disgust, calling South Africa's case a "blood libel" and urging the ICJ to reject it. South Africa has called for the court to convene in the next few days to issue "provisional measures" calling for a ceasefire. The acts and omissions by Israel complained of by South Africa are genocidal in character, as they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial, and ethnical group. The ICJ allows any state party to the Genocide Convention to bring a case against another to the ICJ, even if it doesn't have any direct link to the conflict in question. Israel's foreign ministry spokesperson, Lior Haiat, issued a swift rejection of South Africa's case on social media, stating that South Africa is cooperating with a terrorist organization that is calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.