Preliminary hearings have begun into South Africa’s call for International Court of Justice judges to order an immediate suspension of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A legal battle over whether Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza amounts to genocide opens Thursday at the United Nations’ top court with preliminary hearings into South Africa’s call for judges to order an immediate suspension of Israel’s military actions. Israel stringently denies the genocide allegation.
In a detailed, 84-page document launching the case late last year, South Africa alleges that Israel has demonstrated that intent.
Israel responded by insisting it operates according to international law and focuses its military actions solely against Hamas, adding that the residents of Gaza are not an enemy. It asserted that it takes steps to minimize harm to civilians and to allow humanitarian aid to enter the territory.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry statement called South Africa’s case a “despicable and contemptuous exploitation” of the court.
The ICJ case revolves around the genocide convention that was drawn up in 1948 in the aftermath of World War II and the murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. Both Israel and South Africa are signatories.
In its written filing, South Africa says it went to the court “to establish Israel’s responsibility for violations of the Genocide Convention; to hold it fully accountable under international law for those violations” and to “ensure the urgent and fullest possible protection for Palestinians in Gaza who remain at grave and immediate risk of continuing and further acts of genocide.”
A team of lawyers representing South Africa will present three hours of arguments in the wood-paneled Great Hall of Justice at the world court. Israel’s legal team will have three hours on Friday morning to refute the allegations.
Among South Africa’s delegation will be former U.K. opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose leadership of the left-of-center Labour Party was stained by allegations of antisemitism. He is a longtime supporter of the Palestinian cause and a fierce critic of Israel.
Human Rights Watch said the hearings will provide scrutiny in a U.N. courtroom of Israel’s actions.
“South Africa’s genocide case unlocks a legal process at the world’s highest court to credibly examine Israel’s conduct in Gaza in the hopes of curtailing further suffering,” said Balkees Jarrah, the group’s associate international justice director.
The U.N. court, headquartered in the ornate Peace Palace in a leafy suburb of The Hague, deals with disputes between nations. The International Criminal Court, based a few miles (kilometers) away in the same Dutch city, prosecutes individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Israel is back on the ICJ docket next month, when hearings open into a U.N. request for a non-binding advisory opinion on the legality of Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.
