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South Africa’s Genocide Presentation Against Israel Called ‘Overwhelming and Devastating’

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Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola speaks at a press conference outside the International Court of Justice in The Hague on January 11, 2024.  (Photo: Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Whatever the outcome, we are witnessing an amazing moment of rule of international law history,” said Amnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard.

Human rights defenders and legal experts on Thursday lauded what many called South Africa’s “compelling” opening presentation at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in a case accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in the embattled Gaza Strip.

In a bid to obtain an ICJ emergency order for the suspension of Israel’s relentless 97-day assault on Gaza, South African jurists including Justice Minister Ronald Lamola argued that Israel is violating four articles of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, commonly called the Genocide Convention. The landmark 1948 treaty—enacted, ironically, the same year as the modern state of Israel was born, largely through the ethnic cleansing of Palestine’s Arabs—defines genocide as acts intended “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.”

South African lawyers detailed Israel’s conduct in the war, including the killing and wounding of more than 80,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, forcibly displacing over 85% of the besieged enclave’s 2.3 million people, and inflicting conditions leading to widespread starvation and disease. They also cited at length statements by Israeli officials calling for the destruction and even nuclear annihilation of Gaza in their presentations, which eschewed graphic imagery in favor of arguing “clear legal rights.”

“In its opening argument thus far, South Africa has made a compelling case showing how the genocidal statements by [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and other senior officials were interpreted as official orders by Israeli forces in their attacks against Gaza,” U.S. investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill said on social media.

“Beyond the citations of the vast civilian deaths and injuries caused by Israel in Gaza, [South Africa’s] lawyers argued effectively that Israel’s ‘evacuation’ orders were in and of themselves genocidal, demanding the immediate flight of a million people, including patients in hospitals,” Scahill continued.

“What becomes crystal clear listening to the openly genocidal words of Netanyahu and other Israeli officials is that they know exactly what they are saying,” he added. “And they are comfortable saying these things publicly because they know the U.S. will shield them from accountability.”

Left-wing author and activist and former South African parliamentarian Andrew Feinstein said that “South Africa’s presentation to the ICJ thus far has been exceptional, overwhelming, and devastating,” opining that “the only way the ICJ doesn’t impose interim measures is if the judges are open to pressure from ‘the West.'”

“South Africa’s lawyers have done the nonracial, post-apartheid country proud,” he added.

Legal scholar Nimer Sultany, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, called South Africa’s presentation “compellingly argued and powerfully presented.”

“Given the court’s case law, and given the lower threshold required for issuing provisional measures, it will be very surprising if the court does not issue provisional measures against Israel,” Sultany asserted.

“This also should prompt reflection amongst all those governments and media outlets who supported [Israel’s war,] because they have been supporting a genocide,” he added.

Sultany and numerous other observers said the most powerful presentation of the day was made by Irish lawyer and case adviser Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, who delivered South Africa’s closing statement.

Israel—some of whose officials have condemned South Africa’s case as a meritless “blood libel”—is scheduled to present its defense on Friday. Israeli jurists are expected to focus heavily on the atrocities committed by Hamas-led attackers who killed more than 1,100 Israelis and took around 240 others hostage on October 7. They will likely argue that the country has a right to defend itself, and that it is seeking to eliminate Hamas, not the Palestinian people.

While an emergency order from the World Court would not be enforceable, it would represent a major international embarrassment for Israel, which is increasingly isolated on the world stage. A growing number of nations including Brazil, Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia, Venezuela, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Bolivia, Jordan, and Bangladesh are supporting South Africa’s case, as are the Arab League, more than 1,250 international human rights and civil society group, and progressive U.S. Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.).

“Whatever the outcome, we are witnessing an amazing moment of rule of international law history,” said Amnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard.

Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue ReadingSouth Africa’s Genocide Presentation Against Israel Called ‘Overwhelming and Devastating’

Nations Urged to Back ICJ Case Against Israel After Experts Confirm Genocide Underway

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Original article by JAKE JOHNSON republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

An injured Palestinian girl is brought to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after an Israeli airstrike hit al-Maghazi Refugee Camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on January 09, 2024.  (Photo: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“How many more alarm bells have to ring and how many more civilians must unlawfully suffer or be killed before governments take action?” asked one human rights expert.

Human rights advocates are ramping up pressure on nations to formally back South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice after a panel of experts determined that the Israeli military’s actions in the Gaza Strip—paired with officials’ overt statements of intent to wipe out the Palestinian population—constitute sufficient evidence that a genocide is underway.

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) convened the expert roundtable last month, before South Africa submitted its 84-page ICJ application accusing Israel of violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention, which also requires signatories to prevent genocide.

“We have to be clear that this is a very unique case, indeed textbook, in the way that intent is articulated openly and explicitly in an
unashamed way,” Raz Segal, associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University, said during his December presentation, pointing to remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other high-ranking officials signaling genocidal war aims.

South Africa’s ICJ filing, submitted to the 15-judge United Nations court on December 29, features page after page of quotations from Israeli officials and lawmakers voicing what the document calls “genocidal intent against the Palestinian people.” The first public hearing on the case is scheduled to take place on Thursday.

“Expert analysis of Israeli government statements revealing their intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, combined with military actions on the ground, including mass killings, forced displacement, and the deprivation of items essential to life in Gaza, suggest that the crime of genocide is being committed against the Palestinian population,” Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN’s executive director, said Tuesday. “South Africa’s charging Israel with genocide before the International Court of Justice underscores the need for decisive international action to compel a cease-fire and hold the perpetrators of these atrocities accountable.”

Francis Boyle, the first human rights lawyer to ever win an order from the ICJ under the Genocide Convention, toldDemocracy Now! last week that based on his “careful review of all the documents so far submitted” by South Africa, he believes the country “will win an order against Israel to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide against the Palestinians.”

Thus far, at least seven national governments and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation—which includes 57 member states—have issued statements supporting South Africa’s case against Israel. But only Jordan has signaled that it plans to officially back South Africa’s case with a Declaration of Intervention.

Such declarations allow countries to “formally express their support for the case and contribute to the legal proceedings, enhancing the case’s legitimacy and impact,” DAWN explained, noting that more than 30 nations—including the U.S., Israel’s top ally and arms supplier—submitted Declarations of Intervention in Ukraine’s genocide case against Russia at the ICJ.

“South Africa’s application to the International Court of Justice, invoking the Genocide Convention against Israel, represents a pivotal moment in the pursuit of global justice and accountability,” said Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s advocacy director. “It is time for the international community to support this process and speak with one voice to stop the genocide against the Palestinian people.”

With national and grassroots support for South Africa’s case growing, Israel has been pressuring governments around the world to speak out against the filing as it continues to wage war on Gaza’s desperate and starving population. On Tuesday, as Common Dreamsreported, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken dismissed South Africa’s case as “meritless” even as the Biden administration refuses to formally assess whether Israel has adhered to international law.

Since South Africa submitted its application to the ICJ late last month, Israel has killed more than 2,100 people in the Palestinian enclave and injured thousands more, according to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.

“How many more alarm bells have to ring and how many more civilians must unlawfully suffer or be killed before governments take action?” Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, asked Wednesday. “South Africa’s genocide case unlocks a legal process at the world’s highest court to credibly examine Israel’s conduct in Gaza in the hopes of curtailing further suffering.”

Original article by JAKE JOHNSON republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingNations Urged to Back ICJ Case Against Israel After Experts Confirm Genocide Underway

A Chance to Hold Israel–and the United States–to Account for Genocide

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Original article by MEDEA BENJAMIN NICOLAS J.S. DAVIES republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

A protester reacts as demonstrators are confronted by Palestinian Authority security forces during a protest held in Ramallah as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the Palestinian president in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on January 10, 2024.  (Photo by Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images)

If the ICJ issues a provisional order for a ceasefire in Gaza, humanity must seize the moment to insist that Israel and the United States must finally end this genocide and accept that the rule of international law applies to all nations.

On January 11th, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague is holding its first hearing in South Africa’s case against Israel under the Genocide Convention. The first provisional measure South Africa has asked of the court is to order an immediate end to this carnage, which has already killed more than 23,000 people, most of them women and children. Israel is trying to bomb Gaza into oblivion and scatter the terrorized survivors across the Earth, meeting the Convention’s definition of genocide to the letter.

Since countries engaged in genocide do not publicly declare their real goal, the greatest legal hurdle for any genocide prosecution is to prove the intention of genocide. But in the extraordinary case of Israel, whose cult of biblically ordained entitlement is backed to the hilt by unconditional U.S. complicity, its leaders have been uniquely brazen about their goal of destroying Gaza as a haven of Palestinian life, culture and resistance.

South Africa’s 84-page application to the ICJ includes ten pages (starting on page 59) of statements by Israeli civilian and military officials that document their genocidal intentions in Gaza. They include statements by Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Herzog, Defense Minister Gallant, five other cabinet ministers, senior military officers, and members of parliament. Reading these statements, it is hard to see how a fair and impartial court could fail to recognize the genocidal intent behind the death and devastation Israeli forces and American weapons are wreaking in Gaza.

The Palestinians understand perfectly well who is bombing them—and who is supplying the bombs.

The Israeli magazine +972 talked to seven current and former Israeli intelligence officials involved in previous assaults on Gaza. They explained the systematic nature of Israel’s targeting practices and how the range of civilian infrastructure that Israel is targeting has been vastly expanded in the current onslaught. In particular, it has expanded the bombing of civilian infrastructure, or what it euphemistically defines as “power targets,” which have comprised half of its targets from the outset of this war.

Israel’s “power targets” in Gaza include public buildings like hospitals, schools, banks, government offices, and high-rise apartment blocks. The public pretext for destroying Gaza’s civilian infrastructure is that civilians will blame Hamas for its destruction, and that this will undermine its civilian base of support. This kind of brutal logic has been proved wrong in U.S.-backed conflicts all over the world. In Gaza, it is no more than a grotesque fantasy. The Palestinians understand perfectly well who is bombing them—and who is supplying the bombs.

Intelligence officials told +972 that Israel maintains extensive occupancy figures for every building in Gaza, and has precise estimates of how many civilians will be killed in each building it bombs. While Israeli and U.S. officials publicly disparage Palestinian casualty figures, intelligence sources told +972 that the Palestinian death counts are remarkably consistent with Israel’s own estimates of how many civilians it is killing. To make matters worse, Israel has started using artificial intelligence to generate targets with minimal human scrutiny, and is doing so faster than its forces can bomb them.

Israeli officials claim that each of the high-rise apartment buildings it bombs contains some kind of Hamas presence, but an intelligence official explained, “Hamas is everywhere in Gaza; there is no building that does not have something of Hamas in it, so if you want to find a way to turn a high-rise into a target, you will be able to do so.” As Yuval Abraham of +972 summarized, “The sources understood, some explicitly and some implicitly, that damage to civilians is the real purpose of these attacks.”

Two days after South Africa submitted its Genocide Convention application to the ICJ, Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich declared on New Year’s Eve that Israel should substantially empty the Gaza Strip of Palestinians and bring in Israeli settlers. “If we act in a strategically correct way and encourage emigration,” Smotrich said, “if there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza, and not two million, the whole discourse on ‘the day after’ will be completely different.”

When reporters confronted U.S. State Department spokesman Matt Miller about Smotrich’s statement, and similar ones by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Miller replied that Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have reassured the United States that those statements don’t reflect Israeli government policy.

We should have learned from America’s lost wars that mass murder and ethnic cleansing rarely lead to political victory or success.

But Smotrich and Ben-Gvir’s statements followed a meeting of Likud Party leaders on Christmas Day where Netanyahu himself said that his plan was to continue the massacre until the people of Gaza have no choice but to leave or to die. “Regarding voluntary emigration, I have no problem with that,” he told former Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon. “Our problem is not allowing the exit, but a lack of countries that are ready to take Palestinians in. And we are working on it. This is the direction we are going in.”

We should have learned from America’s lost wars that mass murder and ethnic cleansing rarely lead to political victory or success. More often they only feed deep resentment and desires for justice or revenge that make peace more elusive and conflict endemic.

Although most of the martyrs in Gaza are women and children, Israel and the United States politically justify the massacre as a campaign to destroy Hamas by killing its senior leaders. Andrew Cockburn described in his book Kill Chain: the Rise of the High-Tech Assassins how, in 200 cases studied by U.S. military intelligence, the U.S. campaign to assassinate Iraqi resistance leaders in 2007 led in every single case to increased attacks on U.S. occupation forces. Every resistance leader they killed was replaced within 48 hours, invariably by new, more aggressive leaders determined to prove themselves by killing even more U.S. troops.

But that is just another unlearned lesson, as Israel and the United States kill Islamic Resistance leaders in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Iran, risking a regional war and leaving themselves more isolated than ever.

If the ICJ issues a provisional order for a ceasefire in Gaza, humanity must seize the moment to insist that Israel and the United States must finally end this genocide and accept that the rule of international law applies to all nations, including themselves.

Original article by MEDEA BENJAMIN NICOLAS J.S. DAVIES republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingA Chance to Hold Israel–and the United States–to Account for Genocide

International pressure increases on Israel as it continues committing genocide in Gaza

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Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel has received widespread support as it faces increased criticism for its genocidal war on Gaza

Israel has come under fire over comments from a number of ultra right-wing ministers and politicians who have called for the complete and permanent transfer and expulsion of the Palestinian population of Gaza. The officials have suggested that Gazans should be forcibly transferred to other countries in the region, as well as to countries in Africa.

The United Nations, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, France, the European Union, as well as Israel’s primary backer, the United States, among others have condemned these statements and noted that such a move would constitute a grave violation of international law.

Israel’s far right Minister of Security Itamar Ben-Gvir responded to the criticism from the US stating: “Really appreciate the United States of America but with all due respect we are not another star on the American flag. The United States is our best friend, but first of all we will do what is best for the State of Israel: the migration of hundreds of thousands from Gaza will allow the residents of the enclave to return home and live in security and protect the IDF soldiers.”

Harsh criticisms have been lodged from progressives at the US and France who allege that their policies supporting Israel financially and politically throughout their genocidal war on Gaza have created the conditions for Israel to openly fantasize about this escalation of ethnic cleansing.

The growing international alarm and condemnation comes just a week before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is scheduled to hold public hearings over the genocide case that South Africa has filed against Israel over its war in Gaza. Turkey and Malaysia, have both endorsed the South African case against Israel.

Notably, the National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby rejected the case, an 84-page application, and called it “meritless”.

Worsening humanitarian crisis across Gaza

The United Nations has once again reiterated that the humanitarian situation in Gaza will continue to deteriorate if there is no ceasefire, emphasizing that a number of areas have been rendered completely inaccessible due to Israel’s shelling.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) wrote in an update: “The UN and other humanitarian partners have been unable to deliver urgently needed life-saving humanitarian assistance north of Wadi Gaza for three days due to access delays and denials, as well as active conflict. This includes medicines that would have provided vital support to more than 100,000 people for 30 days, as well as eight trucks of food for people who currently face catastrophic and life-threatening food insecurity.”

The office added, “Humanitarian organizations are calling for urgent, safe, sustained and unhindered humanitarian access to areas north of Wadi Gaza, which has been severed from the south for more than a month.”

The OCHA along with the World Health Organization also reported that “more than 400,000 cases of infectious diseases have been reported since 7 October, with some 180,000 people suffering from upper respiratory infections.  There also have been more than 136,000 cases of diarrhea reported — half among children under the age of 5.”

Humanitarian organizations have emphasized that there is an urgent, critical need for humanitarian assistance, including medical aid, to treat and save the lives of those suffering from diseases and illnesses and to alleviate the extreme suffering and hardships of the population of around 2.1 million, of which 1.9 million are currently internally displaced.

Day 90

Scores of Palestinians have been killed in fresh airstrikes and ground bombardment over the last 24 hours in Gaza.

The total death toll since October 7 has risen to at least 22,438 Palestinians killed, including more than 9,000 children and 4,000 women, along with more than 57,614 injured, more than 75% of whom are women and children. 7000 other Palestinians are reported missing, feared to be trapped under the rubble of the widespread destruction and rubble of damaged buildings.

Hospitals continue to be targeted by Israel. The al-Amal hospital and the surrounding areas in Khan Younis run by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has been under Israeli attack for the past two weeks according to a PRCS statement which has endangered the lives of thousands of IDPs who were taking refuge there. “The displaced persons are living in an atmosphere of horror and panic. This has forced dozens of them to leave again this morning and yesterday, fearing for their lives after they took refuge in the PRCS as a safe place protected by international humanitarian law.”

They reported that in addition to killing and injuring patients and displaced persons taking refuge at al-Amal, the Israeli bombing destroyed the transmitter station of the PRCS VHF communications which creates “a major obstacle to the response of ambulance crews to the wounded, the sick, and humanitarian cases.”

Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingInternational pressure increases on Israel as it continues committing genocide in Gaza

Turkey, Malaysia Back South Africa’s ICJ Genocide Case Against Israel

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Original article by JULIA CONLEY republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

A man holds both Palestinian and Turkish flags at a rally in Istanbul on January 1, 2024.  (Photo: Ilker Eray/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

“Israel’s murder of more than 22,000 Palestinian civilians, the majority of whom were women and children, in Gaza for nearly three months should not go unpunished in any way,” said a Turkish spokesperson.

South Africa is no longer alone in bringing its claim of genocide by the Israeli government to the International Court of Justice, following announcements from the Turkish Foreign Ministry and the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that they support the case.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oncu Keceli said Wednesday that those responsible for the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza since October 7 “must be held accountable before international law.”

“Israel’s murder of more than 22,000 Palestinian civilians, the majority of whom were women and children, in Gaza for nearly three months should not go unpunished in any way,” Keceli said. “We hope that the process will be completed as soon as possible.”

The ICJ is scheduled to hear the case on January 11-12. Israeli representatives are expected to appear at the hearing.

International rights groups issued a call on Wednesday for other countries to file Declarations of Intervention at the court, whose authority Israel recognizes, to bolster South Africa’s case.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said it expects “that within the framework of this application, the ICJ will decide on provisional measures involving those to stop Israel’s attacks on Gaza.”

The Malaysia Ministry of Foreign Affairs said late Tuesday that it “welcomes the application by South Africa instituting proceedings against Israel… concerning the violations by Israel of its obligations under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in relation to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

A spokesperson for the South African Foreign Ministry told The Jerusalem Post that it expects other countries to soon follow Turkey and Malaysia’s lead and back its case.

In its 84-page complaint, South Africa detailed the genocidal intent that’s been displayed in numerous public statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, and other top officials, as well as Israel’s bombardment of civilian targets and forced displacement of civilians.

Original article by JULIA CONLEY republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingTurkey, Malaysia Back South Africa’s ICJ Genocide Case Against Israel