The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague held the first of a two-day hearing in the South African genocide case against Israel over the Gaza war.
Even as the hearing, which will span Thursday and Friday, was taking place, the continued bombardment of the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces has killed more than 100 Palestinians and injured nearly 200 in the past 24 hours. , said the Gaza Ministry of Health. THURSDAY.
Outside the court, pro-Palestinian demonstrators called for an end to Israeli military operations.
Here are the key takeaways from the first day of the ICJ hearing – and what Friday could hold.
South Africa seeks injunction against Israel to stop war
The hearing began with a reading of South Africa’s case against Israel and the demand that Israel immediately suspend its military operations in Gaza, with South Africa reminding the court that more than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since October 7.
Pretoria’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusimuzi Madonsela, said: “South Africa recognizes that the genocidal acts and the authorizations granted by the State of Israel are inevitably part of a continuum of illegal acts perpetrated against the Palestinian people since 1948.
Ronald Lamola, South Africa’s justice minister, said Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel “crossed a line.”
“No armed attack on the territory of a State, however serious, even an attack involving atrocity crimes, can justify or defend violations of the (1948 Genocide) Convention, whether a question of law or morality,” he said.
Lamola added that the case provides the court with an opportunity to act in real time to prevent the continuation of the genocide in Gaza by issuing an injunction.
List of “genocidal acts”
Adila Hassim, a lawyer representing South Africa’s case, outlined what she sees as a series of violations of the Genocide Convention, to which Israel is a party.
“South Africa maintains that Israel has transgressed Article 2 of the convention by committing actions that meet the definition of genocide. These actions show systematic patterns of conduct from which genocide can be inferred,” she said.
Hassim then listed a number of “genocidal acts” committed by Israel.
The “first genocidal act is the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza,” she declared, showing photos of mass graves where “often unidentified” bodies were buried. No one – including newborns – was spared, she added.
The second act of genocide concerns serious physical or mental harm inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza, in violation of Article 2B of the Genocide Convention, Hassim argued. Israeli attacks have injured and mutilated nearly 60,000 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children. Hassim claimed that large numbers of Palestinian civilians, including children, were arrested, blindfolded, forced to strip, loaded into trucks and taken to unknown locations.
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, a second lawyer representing South Africa, claimed that “Israeli political leaders, military commanders and those in official positions have consistently and in explicit terms declared their genocidal intent.”
Ngcukaitobi recalled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments on October 28, calling on ground troops preparing to enter Gaza to “remember what Amalek did to you.” “This refers to God’s biblical command to Saul to destroy an entire group of people in retaliation,” the lawyer said.
Other Knesset members have repeatedly called for Gaza to be annihilated, flattened, erased and crushed, the lawyer argued. “The soldiers believe that this language and their actions are acceptable because the destruction of Palestinian lives in Gaza is an articulated state policy,” Ngcukaitobi said.
Do Israel’s actions constitute a violation of the Genocide Convention?
The hearing then turned to the question of jurisdiction. John Dugard, a South African professor of international law, emphasized that obligations under the Genocide Convention are “erga omnes, obligations owed to the international community as a whole.”
“States parties to this convention are required not only to renounce any acts of genocide, but also to prevent them,” Dugard said. He added that South Africa had attempted to contact the Israeli government through the embassy before filing a complaint.
Max du Plessis, another lawyer representing South Africa, said U.N. bodies and experts as well as human rights organizations, institutions and states “have collectively considered the acts committed by Israel as genocide or, at the very least, have warned that the Palestinian people (are) in danger of genocide.”
South Africa’s legal representatives reminded the Court that at this stage it does not “have to determine whether or not Israel has acted contrary to its obligations under the Genocide Convention” because that does not can only be done “at the merits stage”.
Israel has repeatedly claimed it was acting in self-defense after Hamas fighters entered its territory on October 7, killing 1,139 people and capturing more than 200 others.
In what appears to be a preemptive argument aimed at blunting Israel’s calls for Hamas to be judged in accordance with international law, the South African delegation noted that Hamas is not a state and cannot be a party to the Genocide Convention or the Hague procedures.
When will Israel present its arguments?
After three hours of detailed descriptions of what South Africa considers a compelling case of genocide, the tribunal was adjourned.
The hearing will resume Friday to hear Israel’s oral arguments.
Thomas MacManus, senior lecturer in state crime at Queen Mary University of London’s Law School, told Tel Aviv Tribune that South Africa’s case was “very impressive”. “They very concisely presented devastating accusations tied together in such a legally sound way,” MacManus said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said hypocrisy and lies were presented to the UN’s highest court, adding that South Africa’s accusation of genocide in Gaza against Israel cannot take place than in a topsy-turvy world.
“We fight terrorists, we fight lies,” Netanyahu said. “Today we saw a world turned upside down. Israel is accused of genocide while it fights against genocide.
“Israel is fighting murderous terrorists who have committed crimes against humanity: they have massacred, raped, burned, dismembered, beheaded – children, women, the elderly, young men and women,” he said. declared.
“South Africa’s hypocrisy cries to the heavens,” Netanyahu added. “Where was South Africa when millions of people were killed or uprooted from their homes in Syria and Yemen? By who ? By Hamas partners.
Netanyahu said Israel would retain the right to defend itself until it achieved “total victory.”
Lior Haiat, a spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, called Thursday’s hearing “one of the greatest displays of hypocrisy in history, compounded by a series of false and baseless assertions.”
He then accused South Africa of seeking to allow Hamas to return to Israel to “commit war crimes.”
Although any decision by the ICJ would have little impact on the war itself, a ruling in favor of South Africa and the Palestinians would put significant pressure on Israel’s main financier: the UNITED STATES.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday that the United States sees no basis for South Africa’s allegations of genocide against Israel following the deaths of civilians in Gaza.
