The International Court of Justice will hold its first session – tomorrow, Thursday – to consider South Africa’s request to try Israel on charges of genocide during its devastating war on the Gaza Strip.
According to a report by journalist Majid Abdel Hadi, broadcast by Tel Aviv Tribune, proving genocide crimes against the Gazans may require a long and complex legal battle, as Israeli jurists say that South Africa must prove Israel’s genocidal intent and provide field examples that reinforce it.
In turn, jurists sympathetic to the Palestinians respond that Israeli ministers in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have publicly threatened to wipe out Gaza, level it to the ground, and cut off its water, electricity, and food, in parallel with an unprecedented military campaign.
However, warnings are mounting that the arguments and counter-arguments that the International Court of Justice will witness will lead to moving genocide from the realm of facts to the realm of debate regarding its legal adaptation.
According to the report, this may explain the shift in Israel’s old strategy and its acceptance to appear before the judges of The Hague after it refused in 2004 to attend litigation proceedings regarding the procedures of the apartheid wall in the West Bank, and then ignored the final ruling, citing its lack of recognition of the authority of the court.
This is why calls are being raised in Palestinian, Arab and international political and legal circles for the necessity of the International Court of Justice, at the beginning of its session, taking a precautionary decision stipulating stopping the war on Gaza as a top priority.
Taking such a decision requires the support of at least 8 of the court’s 15 judges representing 15 countries, which may be impossible amid demands from Palestinian and Arab diplomacy for the need to make a prior effort to bring about a change in the map of positions.
It is noteworthy that South Africa undertook the task – and not any Arab or Islamic country – after it had long suffered under the yoke of an apartheid regime that had long been described as very similar to Israel, before it disintegrated due to the struggle of its people in the early 1990s.
Although South Africa has recognized Israel since its founding, relations between them deteriorated following the dismantling of the apartheid regime until Pretoria reduced its diplomatic representation to the level of a liaison office instead of an embassy, in response to former US President Donald Trump’s decision to move his country’s embassy to occupied Jerusalem.