Israel Faces 'Genocide' Allegations at UN Top Court: South Africa Steps Forward - 2024-01-11

Israel and South Africa will face off in the UN's top court from Thursday, after Pretoria accused Israel of "genocidal acts" in Gaza, charges that Israel has dismissed as "blood libel". In an 84-page submission to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa urged judges to order Israel to "immediately suspend its military operations" in Gaza. South Africa alleges that Israel "has engaged in, is engaging in, and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza". Top officials from the two countries will face off in the ICJ's Great Hall of Justice housed in the extravagant Peace Palace in The Hague - a world away from the death and destruction seen recently in Gaza and Israel. Johann Soufi, a lawyer and international justice expert, told AFP there would be an "extremely significant symbolic impact" if the court ruled against Israel. "Of course there is the problem of implementing the decision. But at the end of the day, international justice is all there is left," said Soufi, who worked for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza. South Africa filed the case against Israel because both countries have signed the UN Genocide Convention, created in 1948 as a response to the Holocaust. Any country that has signed the convention can sue another at the ICJ if they disagree on the "interpretation, application or fulfilment" of the rules designed to prevent genocide. South Africa's case is that Israeli action in Gaza is "intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group". Levy, the Israeli government spokesman, said South Africa was giving "political and legal cover" to the Hamas attacks and was "criminally complicit with Hamas's campaign of genocide against our people".