Israel to fight South Africa’s Gaza genocide claim in court
Israel intends to contest South Africa’s accusation of committing “genocidal” acts in Gaza at the International Court of Justice, as stated by an Israeli spokesperson.
Eylon Levy, addressing South African leaders, warned of judgment by history without mercy. South Africa, a strong supporter of the Palestinians, filed the case at the ICJ, sparking outrage from Israel.
The filing asserts that Israel’s actions aim to destroy a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial, and ethnic group.
The case is scheduled to be heard on January 11 and 12, according to Clayson Monyela, a spokesperson for South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation. The ICJ, located in the Hague, Netherlands, serves as the United Nations’ highest court.
It settles disputes between states and gives advisory opinions on international legal issues. It does not have the power to bring prosecutions. However, its opinions carry weight with the UN and other international legal bodies.
Israeli intended to fight the case, Eylon Levy said, “to dispel South Africa’s absurd blood libel”.
A blood libel is a term used to describe antisemitic false allegations against Jewish communities of bloodletting, originating in Europe in the Middle Ages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu angrily rejected South Africa’s allegations when it filed the lawsuit, saying “No, South Africa, it is not we who have come to perpetrate genocide, it is Hamas.
“It would murder all of us if it could. In contrast, the IDF [Israeli army] is acting as morally as possible.”
It comes as Israel is already facing an investigation by the ICJ, initiated by the Palestinians, into its “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of… Palestinian territory”.
The court has sat in judgment on Israel once before, in 2004, when it found that Israel’s barrier built in and around the occupied West Bank was against international law. Israel said the barrier was built to thwart suicide bombings from the West Bank; Palestinians considered it a mechanism to take land.
