- By Raffi Berg in London and Anna Holligan in The Hague
- BBC News
January 12, 2024, 10:49 GMT
Updated 53 minutes ago
video caption,
Watch: “Distorted picture of facts” presented by South Africa – Israeli lawyer tells IGH
Israel has said South Africa distorted the truth in its case at the International Court of Justice by accusing Israel of genocide.
South Africa has presented “a comprehensive counterfactual description” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli lawyer Tal Becker told the International Court of Justice.
South Africa says Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in its war in Gaza.
It also calls on the court to order Israel to stop its military activities.
The International Court of Justice is the highest court of the United Nations. Its rulings are theoretically legally binding on the parties to the International Court of Justice – which include Israel and South Africa – but are not enforceable.
A day after South Africa presented its case, Israel filed its defense in court.
Outside the legal battleground of the International Court of Justice, police set up cordons to ensure rival groups remained far apart.
On one side, Palestinian flags were waved beneath a large screen showing a live feed from the courtroom. Banners were unfurled showing images of Nelson Mandela and pointing out parallels drawn by the South African legal team between the situation in Gaza and the previous apartheid era in South Africa.
A few hundred meters away a symbolic Sabbath table was set. Photos were attached to the backs of empty chairs. These show some of the more than 130 Israelis still being held hostage by Hamas, which is banned as a terror group in the US, UK, EU and elsewhere.
South Africa claims that Israel is violating the 1948 Genocide Convention, which both states signed and which requires the parties to prevent genocide.
Israel has been waging a war against Hamas, the ruling group in Gaza, since October 7, when hundreds of Hamas gunmen invaded Israel, killing about 1,300 people and bringing about 240 others back to Gaza as hostages. Members of the hostages' families were in the International Court of Justice courtroom to hear Israel present its case.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says Israel has killed more than 23,350 people – mostly women and children – in the war.
In his opening statement on Friday, Tal Becker told the court that while the suffering of civilians was “tragic,” Hamas was trying to “maximize civilian harm to both Israelis and Palestinians, while Israel seeks to minimize it.”
South Africa, he said, “regrettably presented the court with a deeply distorted factual and legal picture.” [and] The entire case depends on a deliberately curated, decontextualized and manipulative description of the reality of current hostilities.”
Mr. Becker accused South Africa of “attempting to weaponize the term genocide against Israel.”
He said South Africa was also trying to “thwart Israel's inherent right to self-defense” by trying to get the court to order Israel to stop its military operation against Hamas.
video caption,
Watch: “Israel has genocidal intentions in Gaza,” says lawyer representing South Africa
On Thursday, the court's 17 judges heard South African Supreme Court lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi describe how Israel's “genocidal intent” was “evident in the way in which…” [its] a military attack is being carried out.”
Israel has a plan to “destruct” Gaza, he said, which has been “promoted at the highest levels of the state.”
Adila Hassim, also representing South Africa, told the court that “every day the irreparable loss of life, property, dignity and humanity for the Palestinian people increases.”
“Nothing will stop the suffering except an order from this court.”
In its evidence presented before the hearing, South Africa stated that Israel's actions were “aimed at bringing about the destruction of a significant part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group.”
The federal government issued a statement on Friday saying it “expressly rejects the accusation of genocide” against Israel and that the accusation has “no basis whatsoever.”
“In view of German history and the crime against humanity of the Shoah.” [Holocaust]The Federal Government sees itself as particularly committed to the Convention against Genocide… We are firmly against it [its] political instrumentalization.
Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said Germany would speak at the main hearing before the International Court of Justice.
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Mr Sunak believed South Africa's case was “totally unjustified and wrong”.
“The British government stands by Israel’s clear right to defend itself within the framework of international law,” he said.
What the ICJ will say about the genocide charge will only be an opinion, but it will be closely monitored.
A final decision on this could take years, although the court could rule more quickly on South Africa's request to Israel to end its military deployment.