At a two-day public hearing that began on Thursday at the Peace Palace in The Hague, South Africa accused Israel of carrying out genocidal acts against Palestinians.
In hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, South Africa demanded an emergency suspension of Israel’s aerial and ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave, which it said was aimed at bringing about “the destruction of the population” of Gaza.
“Israel has a genocidal intent against the Palestinians in Gaza,” Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, advocate of the High Court of South Africa, told the court.
“That is evident from the way in which this military attack is being conducted,” he said, adding: “The intent to destroy Gaza has been nurtured at the highest level of state.”
Shortly after Israel began the bombing of Gaza following the October 7 attacks, the IDF received criticism for its disproportionate response to Hamas’ surprise attack in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and over 200 were kidnapped at a kibbutz party. The ferocious and sustained bombing campaign against Gaza that followed has resulted in over 23,000 Palestinian deaths, a great preponderance of them civilians and among the civilians, a majority are women and children.
Some Palestinians expressed concern that the responding violence would be used to justify genocide against Palestinians by Israel. Statements made by Israeli officials seemed to suggest as much. Yoav Gallant, Israeli Minister of Defense, stated, “We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly”. Avi Dichter, Israeli Minister of Agriculture, explicitly called for the war to be “Gaza’s Nakba,” and Ariel Kallner, another Member of the Knesset from the Likud party, similarly wrote on social media that there is “one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of [1948]. Nakba in Gaza and Nakba to anyone who dares to join”.
The Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Israel has rejected the accusations of genocide as baseless and accused Pretoria of playing “advocate of the devil” for Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist militant group Israel is waging war against in Gaza.
The 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. Israeli historian of the Holocaust Omer Bartov warned that statements made by top Israeli officials, such as those by Gallant and Dichter, “could easily be construed as indicating a genocidal intent”.
“Every day, there is mounting, irreparable loss of life, property, dignity, and humanity for the Palestinian people,” said Adila Hassim, advocate of South Africa’s high court.
“Nothing will stop the suffering, except an order from this court.” South Africa has demanded that the ICJ order Israel to suspend its military campaign.
The ICJ is hearing South Africa’s arguments on Thursday and Israel’s response to the allegations on Friday.
The ICJ’s decisions are final and without appeal – but the court has no way to enforce them.
In its court filings, South Africa cites Israel’s failure to provide food, water, medicine and other essential assistance to Gaza, where Hamas seized power in 2007, two years after Israel ended a 38-year occupation of the enclave.
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that the group was following the World Court proceedings with great interest.
“Justice is going to be tested today,” he said. “We urge the court to reject all pressure and take a decision to criminalise the Israeli occupation and stop the aggression on Gaza.”
