KUALA LUMPUR – South Africa has brought Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention with its ongoing war on Palestine.
A statement by the ICJ said South Africa filed an application yesterday for proceedings to begin against the Zionist state for “acts and omissions by Israel… (which) are genocidal in character” to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.
Both Israel and South Africa are parties to the Genocide Convention. The media reported South Africa’s International Relations and Cooperation Department saying it is “under a treaty obligation to prevent genocide from occurring”.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry, in an immediate reaction, has said the filing is “baseless”.
The ICJ, the United Nation’s judicial body, said South Africa, in its application filed, accused Israel of failing to prevent genocide “since October 7, 2023, in particular” and had also “failed to prosecute the direct and public incitement to genocide”.
“Israel has engaged in, is engaging in, and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” the ICJ said, quoting excerpts from South Africa’s filing.
The country is also asking the ICJ for an indication of provisional measures to protect and prevent further harm to the rights of Palestinians and to ensure Israel’s compliance with the Genocide Convention.
The convention, drafted in the wake of World War II and the Holocaust, criminalises attempts to destroy a people, whether in whole or in part.
Rulings by the ICJ, located in The Hague, Netherlands, are sometimes rejected and ignored by the countries the court has ruled against.
Israel is bombing Gaza in retaliation for the October 7 cross-border attack by Hamas, in which 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken as hostages.
The latest death toll on the Palestinian side since then has exceeded 21,000 killed in Israel’s strikes.
Separate cases against Israel, meanwhile, have also been filed at the International Criminal Court (ICC), also in The Hague, by Palestinian rights groups. Israel is not a member of the ICC. – December 30, 2023