South Africa has accused the state of Israel of violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in a complaint lodged with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday, December 29. To justify its action, Pretoria has invoked the “obligations” of South Africa to prevent genocide and “to protect the Palestinian people in Gaza” from “destruction.” The Israeli foreign ministry reacted on Friday, saying that “Israel rejects with disgust the blood libel.” It criticized South Africa for “despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the Court.”
Even before the judges issue a ruling – as this case could take years – Pretoria has asked them to take urgent action by ordering Israel to cease its operations in Gaza, desist from the forced displacement of Palestinians in the enclave and allow Gazans access to humanitarian aid. Hearings could soon be scheduled at the Peace Palace in The Hague, home to the UN court responsible for settling disputes between states. Since the start of Israeli reprisals on October 7, at least 21,110 Palestinians have been killed and 7,780 are missing, according to the Gaza health authorities, South Africa pointed out in its complaint.
In this 84-page document, Pretoria denounces the killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, “causing them serious bodily and mental harm,” and “inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.” These three crimes can be qualified as genocide because they “are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group, that being the part of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip (‘Palestinians in Gaza’),” said South Africa. Pretoria’s lawyers also point out that the genocidal “intent” of Israeli officials and the army can be “inferred from the nature and conduct of Israel’s military operation in Gaza,” and in particular from the fact that Israel is pushing the besieged Gazans “to the brink of famine.”
‘Long years of apartheid’
This genocidal intent has also manifested itself “at the highest levels, by the Israeli president, prime minister and minister of defence,” according to the application. On October 13, Yoav Gallant described Hamas Palestinians as “human animals.” According to South Africa, Israel is violating the Genocide Convention, including by failing to “prevent or punish the direct and public incitement to genocide by senior Israeli officials.”
The South African lawyers have relied on UN reports, reports by Palestinian journalists and research by NGOs, because Israel prevents the international press from entering the Gaza Strip, as well as investigators from the International Criminal Court and the UN Human Rights Commission. They added that this genocide is committed “against a background of apartheid, expulsion, ethnic cleansing, annexation, occupation, discrimination and ongoing denial of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.”
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