THE HAGUE: South Africa warned justices at the top court of the United Nations on Thursday that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and begged the court to swiftly order Israel to cease its military campaign. South Africa is a continent distant from the fighting between Israel and Hamas. Israel has angrily refuted these claims.
The most recent Gaza conflict, according to South African attorneys, is a continuation of Israel’s decades-long persecution of the Palestinian people.
Even before the opening arguments before the U.N. court in The Hague, Israel has angrily refuted these claims.
During the proceedings on Thursday, South African attorneys requested that courts issue binding preliminary orders on Israel, which included an immediate cessation of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Adila Hassim, a South African lawyer, told the judges and audience in the crowded, elaborate room of the Peace Palace in The Hague, “Genocides are never declared in advance, but this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly a pattern of conduct and related intention that justifies as a plausible claim of genocidal acts.”
Nothing short of a court injunction will put an end to the agony. The Israeli Defense Force has stated that it plans to carry out this course of action for at least a year, thus the crimes will continue in the absence of any sign of temporary measures, the spokesperson said.
Hundreds of pro-Israeli demonstrators marched in front of the courthouse before the proceedings began, holding signs that read, “Bring them home,” in reference to the captives that Hamas is still holding. Israeli and Dutch flags were being waved by individuals in the crowds.
Others were supporting South Africa’s decision by protesting outside the court and waving the Palestinian flag.
The disagreement is fundamental to Israel’s identity as a Jewish state founded in the wake of the Holocaust’s Nazi atrocities.
The identity of South Africa is also involved: Its ruling party, the African National Congress, has long drawn comparisons between its own experience under the apartheid system of white minority rule, which kept the majority of Black people in their “homelands” until it ended in 1994, and Israel’s practices in Gaza and the West Bank.
Israel has deployed a strong legal team to defend its military operation, which it launched in response to the Hamas attacks on October 7, despite the fact that it typically views U.N. and international tribunals as unfair and biased.
Right away, South Africa tried to expand the case beyond of the specific parameters of the existing Israel-Hamas conflict.
“On October 7, 2023, the bloodshed and devastation in Palestine and Israel did not start. For the past 76 years, the Palestinian people have been subjected to systemic oppression and bloodshed, according to South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola.
“At the outset, South Africa acknowledges that the genocidal acts and omissions by the state of Israel inevitably form part of a continuum of illegal acts perpetrated against the people of Palestinian people since 1948,” stated Vusimuzi Madonsela, the co-leader of South Africa’s delegation. 1948 marked the year that Israel declared its independence.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his nation’s actions in a video message released on Wednesday night, stating they had nothing to do with genocide.
