2024-01-24 16:59:14
Al Jazeera Net correspondents
1/24/2024-|Last update: 1/24/202408:35 PM (Mecca time)
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London- At a time when it seems that the judicial path to hold Israel accountable for its crimes in the Gaza Strip may extend for years before it comes to fruition, the Irish government is close to taking the step of joining the lawsuit filed by South Africa once morest Israel before the International Court of Justice, on charges of committing genocide once morest the Palestinians in Gaza.
Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin defended his country’s position regarding its actual involvement in the lawsuit in which South Africa accuses Israel of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention, stressing that his government will consider the decision to join this judicial process once the lawsuit passes its initial stages.
The International Court of Justice had responded to the request to decide on the temporary measures that South Africa called for to take to protect the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and decided on January 11 and 12 to hold two hearings for the pleas of both South Africa and Israel, and it is expected that the court will issue its decision regarding the immediate cessation of work. Combat this weekend.
South Africa filed an 84-page lawsuit asserting that the Israeli speeches contain a “will to commit genocide once morest the Palestinians,” noting that the Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip represent a direct violation of Israel’s obligations as a signatory to the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.
Required to accelerate accession
The Irish government believes that the urgent request submitted by South Africa, which calls on the court to issue an immediate order for the Israeli army to end its hostilities in the Gaza Strip, is consistent with its demands for a complete ceasefire there, and for humanitarian aid to reach the people of the Strip.
But deciding on South Africa’s request is an essential step before Ireland decides to join the lawsuit once morest Israel, a final ruling on which might take several years.
Joining South Africa in pleading before the judges of the International Court of Justice once morest Israel may not be considered an easy step, despite several countries, such as Turkey and Belgium, expressing their support for holding Israel accountable before international bodies, and despite Ireland’s advanced position compared to its European neighbors.
The statements of Irish government officials are merely an echo of a wave of remarkable popular and political solidarity with the Palestinians within the ranks of Irish parties and civil bodies since the beginning of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
Resorting to the legal path did not negate, in the eyes of Irish officials, the need to demand an immediate ceasefire in the Strip, as many of them were vocal in critical and sharp rhetoric towards the Israeli aggression.
In response to the mounting popular demands for the government to accelerate the mechanism for joining the lawsuit filed by South Africa once morest Israel, the Irish Foreign Minister stressed in statements to local media that “Israel should not escape accountability.”
He stressed that his country will follow the same serious approach it took during its support of the lawsuit filed by Ukraine before the International Court of Justice once morest the Russian war on its territory and its violation of the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.
While the Irish government is awaiting a ruling from the International Court of Justice regarding the urgent request to stop hostilities in the Gaza Strip, to consider whether Ireland should intervene in this case, the Social Democratic Party, one of the most important opposition parties in the country, is moving within days to submit a request. An official request for the government to engage in the lawsuit before the International Court of Justice.
The party calls on the government to translate the official Irish position calling for an immediate end to the war into practical political steps and concrete legal measures, while Palestinian civilians are suffering more massacres without having the luxury of waiting sufficient time for the end of international litigation procedures.
Legal and political weight
Ireland was among regarding 32 European countries that supported the lawsuit filed by Ukraine before the International Court of Justice, accusing Russia of committing genocide crimes during its ongoing war once morest Ukraine, but Ireland’s joining South Africa is a qualitative addition, given the legal and political experience it accumulated during its conflict with Britain. Regarding the independence of Northern Ireland, it is considered a player with historical symbolism and a supporter of the rights of peoples to self-determination.
The Irish political positions in support of the Palestinian people crystallized during the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, through a long historical path in which the Irish political and civil parties and forces supported the right of the Palestinian people to resist their occupiers, while the Irish see that the history of the Palestinian issue intersects in many of its stages with what they consider to be their conflict. Historically once morest Britain, which they consider to be a colonial power occupying the northern part of their lands.
This identification with the Palestinian struggle once morest the Israeli occupation represents one of the intellectual foundations that shape the Irish political imagination regarding its perception of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and makes Ireland one of the few voices within the European Union critical of the Israeli occupation policies of its settlement incursion and its continuing violations of the rights of the Palestinian people.
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