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 filed on December 29 before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). To justify its approach, Pretoria invokes “the rights and obligations of South Africa” to prevent genocide and “to protect the Palestinians in Gaza from destruction”. The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded Friday, saying that“Israel rejects the defamation with disgust.” He criticized South Africa for doing “cheap exploitation of the International Court of Justice”.
Even before the judges ruled on the merits, because this procedure could take years, Pretoria asked them to take emergency measures by ordering Israel to cease its operations in Gaza, to renounce the forced displacement of Palestinians in the enclave and allow Gazans access to humanitarian aid. Hearings could be quickly organized at the Peace Palace in The Hague, where this UN court responsible for settling disputes between States sits. Since the start of Israeli reprisals on October 7, at least 21,110 Palestinians have been killed and 7,780 have disappeared, according to a count by Gaza health authorities. recalls South Africa in its complaint.
In this 84-page document, Pretoria denounces the murders of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, “serious attacks on their physical or mental integrity”and their intentional submission “to conditions of existence calculated to bring about their total or partial physical destruction”. These three crimes can be qualified as genocide because they are committed “with the specific intention of destroying the Palestinians in Gaza”, says South Africa. Pretoria lawyers further emphasize that the” intention “ genocidal action by Israeli officials and the army can be “deducted (…) of the nature and conduct of the Israeli military operation in Gaza”and in particular because Israel is pushing the besieged Gazans “on the verge of starvation”.
“Long years of apartheid”
This genocidal intention would also have manifested itself “at the highest levels, from the Israeli president, prime minister and defense minister”, we read in the complaint. On October 13, Yoav Gallant described the Palestinians of Hamas as“human animals”. For South Africa, Israel is violating the genocide convention, including by not punishing “direct and public incitement to genocide by senior officials”.
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