Above photo: AFP via Getty Images.
South Africa accused Israel at the World Court of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention in its ethnic cleansing campaign of Gaza.
The Israeli foreign ministry has ordered officials around the world to lobby diplomats and politicians to “issue statements against South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ),” according to an internal cable reviewed by Axios.
In particular, the cable highlights that Israel’s “strategic goal” is for the ICJ, also known as the World Court, “to reject the request for an injunction, refrain from determining that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and recognize that the Israeli military is operating in the Strip according to international law.”
“A ruling by the court could have significant potential implications that are not only in the legal world but have practical bilateral, multilateral, economic, security ramifications,” the cable highlights. “We ask for an immediate and unequivocal public statement along the following lines: To publicly and clearly state that YOUR COUNTRY rejects the outragest [sic], absurd and baseless allegations made against Israel.”
Israeli ambassadors were ordered to secure such statements before the hearing, which is set to start on 11 January. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also expected to “send letters to dozens of world leaders” pleading for support.
On 29 December, South Africa filed an urgent case at the ICJ accusing Israel of violating its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention during its indiscriminate carpet bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip.
“The acts and omissions by Israel complained of by South Africa are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group … The acts in question include killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, and inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction,” the 84-page ICJ filing reads.
“[Israel] has failed to prevent genocide and is committing genocide in manifest violation of the Genocide Convention … including by failing to prevent or punish the direct and public incitement to genocide by senior Israeli officials and others,” the document adds.
The filing also includes nine pages documenting genocidal comments from top Israeli officials.
The Genocide Convention, ratified after World War II and the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews, makes it a crime to attempt to destroy a people in whole or in part. As a signatory of the convention, Israel cannot claim that the court has “no authority,” as it often does with regard to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Jordan, Turkiye, Malaysia, and Indonesia have already announced their support for South Africa’s genocide accusation against Israel. The US lambasted Pretoria for filing the case, calling it “meritless, counterproductive, and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.”
As the death toll in Gaza approaches 25,000 – the majority of which are women and children – Washington also maintains they have seen “no evidence” of acts of genocide committed by Israel.
Tel Aviv tapped prominent US lawyer and Israel advocate Alan Dershowitz for its defense. However, he was replaced by British barrister Malcolm Shaw this week following the release of documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking conspiracy case that contain highly incriminating details about Dershowitz.
“Dershowitz came ‘pretty often’ to Epstein’s Florida mansion and got massages while he was there … Dershowitz was present alone at the home of Epstein, without his family, in the presence of young girls,” the unsealed court documents detail.
South Africa will be represented at the ICJ by a team led by Irish lawyer Blinne Ni Ghralaigh, who previously worked on the Bloody Sunday inquiry.