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South Africa presented its case today at the ICJ, accusing Israel of Genocide
Summary
South Africa criticizes “ongoing Nakba of the Palestinian people” in opening ICJ remarks
Vusi Mandonsela, South Africa’s ambassador to the Netherlands, said his country “places Israel’s genocidal acts and omissions within the broader context of Israel’s 25-year apartheid, 76-year occupation, and 16-year siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.”
“South Africa has recognized the ongoing Nakba of the Palestinian people through Israel’s colonization since 1948, which has systematically and forcibly dispossessed, displaced and fragmented the Palestinian people, deliberately denying them their internationally recognized, inalienable right to self-determination and their internationally recognized right of return as refugees to their towns and villages in what is now the state of Israel,” Mandonsela said.
Mandonsela said Israel’s allegedly genocidal acts in Gaza “inevitably form part of a continuum of illegal acts perpetrated against the Palestinian people since 1948.” He also accused Israel of “subjecting the Palestinian people to apartheid.”
"No armed attack" can justify breaching genocide convention, South Africa argues
Addressing the court, South Africa’s Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola said the oppression of Palestinian people did not begin following the Hamas attacks, arguing it has been ongoing for years. “In the Gaza Strip, at least since 2004, Israel continues to exercise control over the air space, territorial waters, land crossing, water, electricity and civilian infrastructure.”
He said that "South Africa unequivocally condemned the targeting of civilians by Hamas and other Palestinians and groups, and the taking of hostages on the 7th of October 2023."
But, he argued, “no armed attack on a state territory, no matter how serious... even an attack involving atrocity crimes can provide any justification for, or defense to, breaches to the convention. Whether it is a matter of law or morality. "Israel’s response to the 7th of October 2023 attack has crossed this line and gives rise to the breaches of the convention," he told the court.
South Africa Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola, left, and South African Ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela
South Africa cites evidence it says shows “pattern of genocidal conduct” by Israel
In an 84-page filing to the ICJ, South Africa cited evidence it said showed Israel is committing genocide by killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing serious mental and bodily harm, forced evacuations, widespread hunger, and by creating conditions “calculated to bring about their physical destruction.”
Hassim discussed some of the evidence presented by South Africa in its filing, including Israel’s air strikes in Gaza. She said Palestinians in Gaza have “been killed if they have failed to evacuate, in the places to which they have fled, and even while they have attempted to flee along Israeli-declared safe routes". "The level of Israel’s killing is so extensive that nowhere is safe in Gaza,” she said, adding that the destruction was “beyond any acceptable legal – let alone humane – justification."
Hassim also cited videos and images she said showed Israeli soldiers “joyfully detonating entire apartment blocks and town squares, erecting the Israeli flag over the wreckage, seeking to reestablish Israeli settlements on the rubble of Palestinian homes, and thus extinguishing the very basis of Palestinian life in Gaza.” She also cited experts who have claimed that more may die in Gaza because of disease and starvation than because of Israeli air strikes.
South Africa not alone in drawing attention to Israel's "genocidal intent," lawyer argues
Fifteen United Nations special rapporteurs and 21 members of the United Nations weapon groups have warned that what is happening in Gaza reflects a genocide in the making and an overt intent to destroy the Palestinian people and occupation," he said.
Israel has a genocidal intent against the Palestinians in Gaza," Ngcukaitobi told the court.
"That is evident in the way in which Israel's military attack is being conducted, which has been described by Ms Hasim." "It is systematic in its character and form. The mass displacement of the population of Gaza, headed into areas where they continue to be killed and the deliberate creation of conditions that quote — lead to a slow death — unquote."
South Africa accuses Israel's leaders of showing "genocidal intent" towards Palestinians in Gaza
“Israel’s political leaders, military commanders, and persons holding official positions, have systematically and in explicit terms declared their genocidal intent.” These statements “are then repeated by soldiers on the ground in Gaza as they engage in the destruction of Palestinians and the physical infrastructure of Gaza.” “Israel’s special genocidal intent is rooted in the belief that in fact the enemy is not just the military wing of Hamas, or indeed Hamas generally, but is embedded in the fabric of Palestinian life in Gaza,” Ngcukaitobi claimed.
Ngcukaitobie cited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Israeli forces on October 28, ahead of the imminent launch of its ground offensive in Gaza. “Remember what Amalek did to you,” Netanyahu said in his address, which Ngcukaitobi told the court “refers to a Biblical command by God to Saul for the retaliatory destruction of an entire group of people known as the Amalekites.” Ngcukaitobi cited a verse from the book of Samuel also referring to the Amalekites. “Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys,” reads the verse.
Ngcukaitobi then referenced quotes from Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. "On 9 October, the Defense Minister Yoav Gallant gave a situation update to the army where he said that as Israel was imposing a complete siege on Gaza there would be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything would be closed. Because Israel is fighting 'human animals,'" Ngcukaitobi told the court.
Ngcukaitobi continued: "Speaking to troops on the Gaza border he instructed them that he has released “all the restraints” and that Gaza won’t return to what it was before." “We will eliminate everything. We will reach all places,” Ngcukaitobi quoted Gallant as saying.
ICJ risks treating Palestinians as “less worthy of protection than others," South Africa says
South African Ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela
South Africa has argued that if the International Court of Justice refuses to grant emergency measures in its genocide case against Israel, the court would “treat Palestinians differently, as less worthy of protection than others.” It wants the court to order a halt in Israel's Gaza campaign, something the court could rule on in a matter of weeks.
Max du Plessis, one of the advocates representing South Africa, cited various cases in which the ICJ has granted “provisional measures” in order to protect the rights of peoples around the world.
In January 2020, the court granted The Gambia's request for provisional measures to protect the Rohingya people remaining in Myanmar from Genocide. The Court has granted similar measures to protect Ukrainians from ongoing Russian aggression, and Bosnians during the Balkan Wars in the 1990s.
South Africa has argued that the rights of Palestinians must be protected “from imminent and irreparable loss” while the court considers the full merit of the case, which could take years. To find otherwise would not only be to treat Palestinians differently, as less worthy of protection than others, it would also be for the court to unduly limit its own competence, to turn its back upon its extensive prior jurisprudence, and to close its eyes to the breach of the rights which lie at the heart of the convention, and which breaches are taking place in Gaza right now,” du Plessis said.
South Africa has stressed throughout the hearing that the Court need only to decide that Israel’s actions are “plausibly genocidal” for it to grant provisional measures. “It is not necessary for the court to come to a final view on the question of whether Israel’s conduct constitutes genocide. It is necessary to establish only whether at least some of the acts alleged are capable of falling within the provisions of the convention,” Adila Hassim argued earlier. "It is clear that at least some, if not all, of these acts fall within the convention’s provisions," she said.
South African lawyer describes Gaza as "moral failure" and urges court to implement provisional measures
"The imminent risk of death, harm and destruction that Palestinians in Gaza face today, and that they risk every day during the pendency of these proceedings on any view justifies, indeed compels the indication of provisional measures," she argued.
Ní Ghrálaigh continued to say that the international community had "repeatedly failed. It failed the people of Rwanda. It failed the Bosnian people and the Rohingya, prompting this court to take action. It failed again by ignoring the early warnings of the grave risk of genocide to the Palestinian people sounded by international experts since October 19 last year."
"The international community continues to fail the Palestinian people, despite the overt, dehumanizing, genocidal rhetoric by Israeli governmental and military officials, matched by the Israeli army’s actions on the ground," she said.
As a part of her closing remarks, Ní Ghrálaigh says "the world should be ashamed" by the situation in Gaza.
South Africa has outlined its key requests from the ICJ
He requested the measures be considered "as a matter of extreme urgency".
Among the provisional measures requested include:
- That Israel suspends its military operations in and against Gaza
- That Israel ensures its military - and any associated groups stop any military operations
- That Israel stops killing Palestinian people
- That Israel stops displacing Palestinian people from their homes and ensures they have access to food, water, healthcare and basic infrastructure
- That Israel take "all reasonable actions within their power to prevent genocide"
Last edited by SvennoJ - on 11 January 2024
