South Africa’s genocide case against Israel gathers steam
List of supporting countries continues to grow; extensive mainstream media coverage.
South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), set to have its first hearing on January 11, is quickly gathering steam:
Extensive coverage in the mainstream media.
Bolivia, Malaysia, Turkey, Jordan and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which represents 57 states, have backed the case.
Bolivia has joined the ranks of countries who support South Africa’s historic case against Israel. In a statement on January 7, the Bolivian government recognised “that South Africa took a historic step in the defense of the Palestinian people, a leadership and effort that should be accompanied by the international community that clamors for the respect for life”.
Prior to that, Malaysia had called the decision a “timely and tangible step towards legal accountability for Israel’s atrocities in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian territories at large”.
While the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) had backed the case stating that it has “affirmed that the indiscriminate targeting by Israel, the occupying power, of the civilian population and the thousands of Palestinians … killed, injured, forcibly displaced, and denied basic necessities … in their totality constitute mass genocide”.
Ofer Cassif, a member of the Israeli Knesset, will be joining the case against Israel.
In a statement published on X, Cassif, a member of Hadash-Ta’al party (a joint platform of the Arab Movement for Renewal party and Hadash political coalition), wrote:
My constitutional duty is to Israeli society and all of its residents, not to a government whose members and its coalition are calling for ethnic cleansing and even actual genocide. They are the ones who hurt the country and the people, they are the ones who led South Africa to turn to The Hague, not me and my friends. And when the government acts against society, the state and its citizens, especially when it sacrifices them and commits crimes in their name on the altar of maintaining its existence, it is my right and even my duty to warn about this and do everything I can within the law to stop it. I will not give up the fight for our existence as a moral society. This is the true patriotism — no revenge wars and calls for extermination, no unnecessary bloodshed, and no sacrifice of kidnapped citizens and soldiers in false wars.
More than 900 popular movements, unions, political parties, and other organizations have signed an open letter calling on states to support South Africa’s Genocide Convention case against Israel:
We, the undersigned organizations, commend South Africa on its Application to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) invoking the Genocide Convention against Israel.
We now urge other countries to reinforce this strongly worded and well-argued complaint by immediately filing a Declaration of Intervention with the ICJ, also called the World Court.
Many countries have rightly expressed their horror at the State of Israel’s genocidal actions, war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed against Palestinians. Israeli Occupying Forces have bombed hospitals, residences, United Nations refugee centers, schools, places of worship and escape routes, killing and injuring tens of thousands of Palestinians since October 7, 2023. More than half of the dead are women and children. Israeli leaders have made brazenly genocidal statements openly declaring their intention to permanently and completely displace Palestinians from their own land.
South Africa is correct in charging that under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Israel’s actions “are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent … to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group”.Parties to the Genocide Convention are obliged to act to prevent genocide; therefore, action must be immediate. A Declaration of Intervention filed with the ICJ in support of the South African case against Israel is one way to ensure that all acts of genocide are stopped and those responsible are held accountable.
Israel’s killing, injuring, traumatizing, and displacing large numbers of Palestinians and denying water, food, medicine, and fuel to an occupied population meet the criteria for the crime of genocide. If a majority of the world’s nations call for a ceasefire, yet fail to press for prosecution of Israel — what is to stop Israel from ethnically cleansing all Palestinians?
For that matter, what is to stop other nations from repeating a horror of this magnitude?
We urge national governments to immediately file a Declaration of Intervention in support of the South African case against Israel at the International Court of Justice to stop the killing in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The Israeli government is clearly worried. It has reportedly mounted a pressure campaign urging governments around the world to publicly denounce the case.
According to a cable obtained by Axios, the Israeli Foreign Ministry is calling on the country’s embassies to pressure host country diplomats and political leaders to swiftly issue a statement denouncing the “outrage[ous], absurd, and baseless allegations made against Israel” — almost the exact words used by US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
Yousef Munayyer, a Palestinian American political analyst, called Israel’s lobbying campaign “an effort to intimidate the judges” at the ICJ.
Whether or not these efforts prove successful in bullying the court, the fact remains that, regardless of the trial’s outcome, having to defend itself against an allegation of genocide — one that “is comprehensive, well-written, well-argued, and thoroughly documented”, as John Mearsheimer writes — is something that will irreparably tarnish Israel’s reputation in ways that are almost impossibile to imagine.
The Israeli government know this. And they know that even Israel can’t afford to become a full-blown pariah state. That is why this trial is so important, and why now is the moment ramp up the pressure on Israel.
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Thomas Fazi
Website: thomasfazi.net
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