2024-01-11 10:52:30
1/11/2024-|Last update: 1/11/202403:28 PM (Mecca time)
On Thursday, the International Court of Justice adjourned its first session after hearing South Africa’s case against Israel on charges of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The president of the court, American Judge Joan Donoghue, read out a list of procedural issues that the court will consider in examining the case, with the participation of two judges from South Africa and Israel, in order to ensure integrity and transparency, as she put it.
South Africa calls on Israel to immediately stop its military operations in the Gaza Strip, presenting a set of indicators regarding these operations and how they amount to genocide.
The South African legal team said that Israel has intensified its crimes against the Palestinians since 1948, and that it is subjecting the Palestinians to an apartheid regime, adding that the international community has failed to prevent genocide in Gaza.
He pointed out that Israel’s actions in the Gaza war indicate an intention to commit genocide, and that hundreds of families in Gaza were completely killed and none of them remained alive.
The South African legal team added that Israel deliberately creates conditions that deprive Palestinians of shelter and clean water, and it also deliberately imposed conditions in Gaza to prevent the living and physical destruction of Palestinians.
The Minister of Justice in South Africa said that the Palestinians are subjected to non-stop bombing wherever they go, and are killed everywhere they turn, stressing that Israel launched a major attack on Gaza and violated the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.
After about 3 months of war on the Gaza Strip #Gaza.. What is Israel’s “emergency” plan to face its trial before international justice? pic.twitter.com/5fcijVP8UO
– Aljazeera.net • Al Jazeera Net (@AJArabicnet) January 10, 2024
Israel had agreed to appear before the court in order to refute what it described as “ridiculous accusations that lack any factual or legal basis.”
But the Israeli press confirmed that there is a serious fear in the Israeli security institutions and the Public Prosecution Office that the International Court of Justice will charge Israel with genocide.
The hearings will address South Africa’s demand to impose emergency measures and force Israel to suspend its military operations in Gaza, while the court will consider the merits of the case, a process that may take years.
In the 84-page lawsuit, South Africa states that Israel failed to provide basic food, water, medicine, fuel, shelter and other humanitarian assistance to the residents of the Strip.
She also referred to the ongoing bombing campaign that destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes, forced about 1.9 million Palestinians to flee, and resulted in the deaths of 23,000 people, according to data from the health authorities in Gaza.
Israel fears the repercussions of the lawsuit filed by South Africa against it in the International Court of Justice. Is it possible to stop the war? #Gaza Among these repercussions?
For more: pic.twitter.com/L1maXyg9jW– Aljazeera.net • Al Jazeera Net (@AJArabicnet) January 9, 2024
A panel of 17 judges – including two judges from Israel and South Africa – will hear 3 hours of arguments for each side, and a ruling on the interim measures is expected later this month. The rulings of the International Court of Justice are binding, but the court does not have the power to implement them.
In an indication of the weight of the term genocide, Israel sent a former Supreme Court judge who had survived the Holocaust, which occurred before the signing of the Genocide Convention. South Africa will appoint a judge who spent 10 years on Robben Island during his youth, where he met former South African President Nelson. Mandela.
Another court in The Hague, the International Criminal Court, is separately investigating charges of atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank and the October 7 attack on Israel, but has not named any suspects. Israel is not a member of the ICC and rejects its jurisdiction.
Demonstrations in the Netherlands in support of South Africa’s lawsuit (Anatolia)
Exchange of accusations
For his part, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday, “Our opposition to the ongoing massacre of the people of Gaza prompted us, as a country, to resort to the International Court of Justice.”
He added, “As a people who have once suffered the bitterness of plunder, discrimination, racism, and state-sponsored violence, we are clear that we will stand on the right side of history.”
On the other hand, Israeli government spokesman Elon Levy said yesterday, Wednesday, “Tomorrow (Thursday), the State of Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice to refute the absurd bloodshed lie launched by South Africa, as Pretoria gives political and legal cover to the Hamas regime (the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement). “The rapist.”
In the same context, the leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Osama Hamdan, called on the International Court of Justice not to yield to what he described as pressures and dictates through which the American administration seeks to disrupt the court. Hamdan considered that the American administration is a partner and bears responsibility for the continuation of what he called the genocidal war that is still being committed against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
Arabic support
In turn, the League of Arab States affirmed its full support and support for the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel on charges of committing genocide and violating the 1948 Genocide Convention, expressing its aspiration for a just ruling that stops the aggressive war on the Gaza Strip and puts an end to the Palestinian bloodshed.
The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said in press statements that the League’s General Secretariat supports the South African endeavor in all possible ways by being prepared to provide what serves the cause and strengthens the Palestinian position, adding that it is an important step, not only towards a ceasefire, but also holding the Israeli occupation accountable. .
In this context, the Libyan Presidential Council announced yesterday, Wednesday, its support for the lawsuit against Israel, and affirmed in a statement its support in every way for the step taken by South Africa regarding the unprecedented genocide to which the Palestinian people are being subjected at the hands of the Israeli occupation.
As for Tunisia, it said that it would not join any lawsuit filed against Israel “because of the implicit recognition of this entity,” but it confirmed that it would present oral arguments.
On the Palestinian side, dozens gathered yesterday, Wednesday, in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to “thank” South Africa for filing the case before the International Court of Justice.
Ramallah Mayor Issa Kassis told the crowd in front of a 6-meter-high statue of Nelson Mandela presented in 2016 by the Municipality of Johannesburg (South Africa): “We feel that South Africa hears our hearts and hears our pain.”
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