South Africa accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza, requests UN top court to step in

The Hague (Netherlands): In a significant development occurring far from the conflict in Gaza, South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians, urging the United Nations’ top court on Thursday to immediately halt the country’s military operation. Israel has vehemently denied these allegations.

During the opening arguments, South African lawyers asserted that the current Gaza war is part of a decades-long oppression of Palestinians by Israel. This two-day hearing is the public phase of a landmark case, one of the most significant in an international court, addressing the core of one of the world’s most persistent conflicts.

South Africa is seeking binding preliminary orders to compel Israel to cease its military campaign in Gaza, where, according to the health ministry run by Hamas, over 23,000 people have died.

“Genocides are never declared in advance, but this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly a pattern of conduct and related intention that justifies a plausible claim of genocidal acts,” said South African lawyer Adila Hassim during the proceedings at the Peace Palace in The Hague. “Nothing will stop the suffering except an order from this court,” she added.

Israel contends that it is combating a formidable enemy in the Gaza Strip, which executed the deadliest attack on its territory since its creation in 1948, resulting in the deaths of over 1,200 people. Israel maintains that it follows international law and makes every effort to minimize harm to civilians, blaming Hamas for embedding itself in residential areas.

South Africa rejected these arguments, insisting that Israel deliberately committed genocide.

“The scale of destruction in Gaza, the targeting of family homes and civilians, the war being a war on children, all make clear that genocidal intent is both understood and has been put into practice,” said lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi. He emphasised the reiteration of genocidal speech throughout every sphere of the Israeli state.

The dispute strikes at the heart of Israel’s national identity as a Jewish state created in the aftermath of the Nazi genocide in the Holocaust, during which 6 million Jews were murdered.

It also evokes issues central to South Africa’s own identity: Its governing party, the African National Congress, has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Blacks to “homelands” before ending in 1994.

Israel, taking the accusation seriously, has sent a strong legal team to defend its military operation.

The decision on the request for “provisional measures” is expected in the coming weeks, and the case is likely to extend over several years. If Israel refuses to heed any court orders to halt operations, it could face UN sanctions, potentially to be blocked by a US veto.

South Africa aims to expand the case beyond the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, arguing

that the violence and destruction in Palestine and Israel are not isolated incidents but part

of a history of systematic oppression lasting

76 years.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a video statement, defended his country’s actions, asserting that Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population.

He emphasised that Israel is fighting Hamas terrorists, not the Palestinian population, in compliance with international law.

About two-thirds of the reported deaths in Gaza are women and children, according to health officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza. The dispute highlights the dire humanitarian situation, with Palestinians struggling to find food, water, medicine, and basic necessities.

The International Court of Justice, dealing with disputes between nations, has never previously judged a country responsible for genocide.

The closest it came was in 2007 when it ruled that Serbia “violated the obligation to prevent genocide” in the July 1995 massacre by Bosnian Serb forces of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica.

The case revolves around the genocide convention established in 1948 after World War II and the Holocaust, with both Israel and South Africa as signatories.

Israel is also set to face a hearing next month on a UN request for a non-binding advisory opinion on the legality of its policies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.