2 hours ago
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Pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters gathered near the International Court of Justice in The Hague to watch the proceedings
The United Nations' highest legal body has now spent two days hearing powerful legal arguments about the “crime of all crimes”: genocide.
It is now up to the judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to decide whether Israel is guilty of attempting to “destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” in its war in Gaza. “in accordance with the 1948 Genocide Convention.
There could hardly be a more important matter.
Both sides have capitalized on the strong emotions swirling around the conflict that erupted on October 7 last year.
In the Hamas attack on southern Israel, around 1,300 people – most of them civilians – were killed and around 240 others were taken hostage.
According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, more than 23,350 people – mostly children and women – have been killed in Israeli retaliatory attacks on Gaza.
The case brought by South Africa to the International Court of Justice covered a range of alleged Israeli crimes, from the indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians to the wholesale destruction of Gaza's infrastructure.
“This killing is nothing short of the destruction of Palestinian life,” said Adila Hassin, one of South Africa’s lawyers.
The South African team argued that the Israeli war in Gaza should not continue.
“Entire multi-generational families will be wiped out,” warned Irish lawyer Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, “and even more Palestinian children will become WCNSF – Wounded Child No Surviving Family – the terrible new acronym born out of Israel’s genocide.”
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Watch: “Israel has genocidal intentions in Gaza,” says lawyer representing South Africa
But on Friday morning, Israel hit back, with a mix of its own emotion and a forensic attack on the South African case.
The court was presented with images of 132 missing Israelis, most of whom are still being held hostage in Gaza.
“Is there a reason why these people on your screen don’t deserve protection,” Tal Becker, a highly experienced legal advisor at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, asked the court.
Mr. Becker and his colleagues spoke harshly about South Africa's subjugation and argued that if anyone was guilty of genocide, it was Hamas.
“Under the guise of allegations of genocide against Israel,” Becker said, “this court is asked to demand a cessation of operations against the ongoing attacks of an organization that pursues an actual genocidal agenda.”
South Africa, the Israelis said, was guilty of supporting Hamas, a group designated a terrorist organization by 41 countries, including the US, EU and UK.
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Watch: “Distorted picture of facts” presented by South Africa – Israeli lawyer tells IGH
During his speech, Professor Malcolm Shaw seemed to briefly suggest that the very country making this case against Israel was itself complicit.
“At least South Africa has provided assistance and support to Hamas,” he said.
It will probably take several years for the ICJ to reach a verdict on the genocide charge.
South Africans need to know that there is a legal mountain to climb to prove their case.
Genocide is notoriously difficult to prove. There must be convincing evidence of the intent of those actually responsible for the Israeli military operation in Gaza, as well as a pattern of behavior by the Israel Defense Forces that cannot reasonably be explained as anything other than genocide.
Remember: this is only about genocide, not whether war crimes were committed in Gaza or whether Israel is engaged in ethnic cleansing, as some claim.
It is one thing to be horrified or even angry at countless images of suffering inflicted on Palestinians.
It is quite another to conclude that the killing of 1% of Gaza's population, as sobering as that number is, represents an Israeli attempt to destroy the Palestinian people “in whole or in part.”
But for Israel, which may feel on safe ground in the “crime of all crimes,” there is a more immediate concern.
South Africa has appealed to the International Court of Justice to issue nine “interim measures” that, as South Africa's 84-page application states, are intended to “protect against further, serious and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people.”
The first of these demands called on Israel to “immediately halt its military operation in and against Gaza.”
If followed, it would result in Israel's military campaign coming to a halt.
This could happen within weeks, long before Israel feels it has achieved its military goal of completely destroying Hamas as a political and military force in Gaza.
For this reason, its lawyers tried to reject South Africa's argument for “interim measures,” arguing that they had no legal basis and would tie Israel's hands while leaving Hamas free to act.
Israel dislikes the International Court of Justice and feels that the UN as a whole is inherently biased against the Jewish state.
But at a time when international pressure is growing on Israel to end the enormous violence in Gaza, the country knows that pressure will only increase if the court agrees to issue interim measures.
She is willing to ignore the court if she deems it necessary (and the ICJ has no enforcement powers), but she would much rather win the legal argument.