The trial opened in The Hague UN International Court of Justice which will have to establish whether Israel is responsible for violating the UN Convention on Genocide with his operation a Gaza. The first hearing, reserved for the prosecution, was accompanied by strong pressure from Israel which lashed out against the South Africa following the accusations made in the Court against the army’s behavior in the Strip. Pretoria is “the legal arm of the terrorist organization Hamas“: he has declared Lior Hayat, spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. While the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu he stated that “even today we have seen a world turned upside down: Israel is accused of genocide while it is fighting genocide”. For the spokesperson of the White House National Security Council, John Kirbythe accusations of genocide against Israel are “without merit” and “there is no basis” for making them.
The trial arose from a complaint from South Africa which delivered a substantial dossier documenting various events of these two months of war which, according to the accusers, amount to genocide. The civilian casualties have been in Gaza so far over 23 thousandincluding approx 10 thousand minors. The United Nations Palestinian relief agency, Unrwaestimated that 1.9 million people they were displaced internally due to the war, almost 85% of the population, while tens of thousands of buildings were destroyed. South Africa’s document has garnered support from several other target countries Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Türkiye, Pakistan, Jordan, Iran, Maldives and the countries of Arab League.
WATCH LIVE: South Africa opens the oral argument on its request for the indication of provisional measures in the case #SouthAfrica v. #Israel before the #ICJ:
— CIJ_ICJ (@CIJ_ICJ) January 11, 2024
In the 84-page application submitted last December 29th at the Court, South Africa declared: “The acts and omissions of Israel complained of by South Africa are genocidal in nature because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian territory, national, racial and ethnic group.” The document also cites countless public statements of Israeli political leaders in which solutions such as mass deportations or the realization of “un’altra Nakba”, which would constitute the case of genocide. The crime in question, to materialize, requires the specific intent of the perpetrator destroy all or part of a group national, ethnic, racial or religious identified. Secondly, the commission of at least one of the five acts necessary for the realization of that purpose. These include the creation of “living conditions calculated to bring about their physical destruction.” The Court was called upon to rule urgently “to protect against further, serious and irreparable damage to the rights of the Palestinian people arising from the Genocide Convention, which continues to be violated with impunity”.
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The proceedings will begin with two days of public hearing, with the prosecution on Thursday and the defense on Friday. 15 judges from as many countries will then decide, plus one judge each chosen from Israel and South Africa. Tel Aviv has chosen Aharon Barak, former head of the Supreme Court, Pretoria instead relies on the jurist News Moseneke, former deputy chief justice. The Court will initially have to decide a preliminary measure which, from a legal point of view, would force Israel to cease operations in Gaza, although the Court does not have the tools to enforce its application. For a final sentence it will probably take years. A 2019 case that Gambia brought against Myanmar over its military crackdown on Rohingya refugees, for example, is still ongoing.
Israel totally rejects the accusations. “Hypocrisy of South Africa shouts to the heavens – Netanyahu said – Israel fights against murderous terrorists who have committed terrible crimes against humanity. They massacred, raped, burned, dismembered, killed children, women, the elderly, young people. A terrorist organization that committed the most terrible crime against the Jewish people since the Shoah and now there are those who come to defend it in the name of the Shoah. How audacious. The world turned upside down.” And she then reiterated: “Where was South Africa when millions of people were killed and displaced from their homes in Syria e Yemen? And by whom? From Hamas’ partners, the world is turned upside down. And it is precisely the IDF, the most moral army in the worldwho does everything to avoid harming those who are not involved, to be accused by the monsters’ representatives of ‘genocide’.”
For the former Israeli prime minister Naphtali Bennettthe sitting of the Court of Justice is “the Dreyfus Affair of the 21st century, a show of hypocrisy, antisemitism and shame. It was Hamas that, without any reason, attacked, burned, killed and kidnapped Israelis on October 7th. Yet it is Israel that is under accusation,” she said. “Shame on those who take part – she concluded – in this fiction”. The US secretary of state on Tuesday Antony Blinken at a press conference in Tel Aviv he stated “We believe that the presentation of an appeal against Israel to the Hague Tribunal distracts the world from important efforts. Furthermore, the accusation of genocide is unfounded.” “The Zionist regime has committed all the crimes sanctioned by international conventions against the Palestinian people”: he stated in a statement the Iranian Foreign Ministry supporting the accusation against Israel.
Il Chilehas meanwhile announced its intention to turn to the International Criminal Court (which is not a UN court) to request an investigation into the actions of the Israeli government in the Gaza Strip. “Chile – declared the Chilean ambassador Paula Narvaez – will not remain indifferent to the current situation and the pain of the Palestinian people” and “for this reason Chile will promptly present a request regarding the situation in Palestine to the ICC Prosecutor’s Office”. We will ask, he finally said, “an investigation into the international crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories, in which we hope that other countries can join.” Chile hosts the largest Palestinian community outside the Arab world, strong of 400-500,000 members, and the events of the war in Gaza have sparked a strong wave of indignation and protests among its ranks.