Starting on Thursday, South Africa and Israel will argue before the UN Supreme Court on Pretoria’s accusations against Israel of “genocidal acts” in Gaza, which the Israelis have rejected as “blood libel”.
South Africa asked judges to order Israel to “immediately suspend its military operations” in Gaza in an 84-page statement to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
South Africa alleges that Israel “has engaged in, is engaging in, and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza”.
Israel has angrily hit back at the accusations, with government spokesman Eylon Levy vowing to fight the South African case he described as “absurd blood libel”.
“How tragic that the rainbow nation that prides itself on fighting racism will be fighting pro bono for anti-Jewish racists,” added Levy.
“No, South Africa, it is not we who have come to perpetrate genocide, it is Hamas,” said Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A world apart from the horrific dead toll and devastation in Gaza and Israel, top officials from the two nations will square off in the International Court of Justice’s Great Hall of Justice, located in the opulent Peace Palace in The Hague.
Following the most horrific attack in its history on October 7, Israel’s air campaign has left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins. The attack was carried out by Hamas militants.
An AFP calculation based on official Israeli numbers indicates that 1,140 persons were killed in the October 7 Hamas attack, the most of them civilians.
The ICJ rules on disputes between states and while its decisions are legally binding, it has limited power to enforce them.
Although it is unlikely that the court would follow its theoretical order for Israel to cease its assault, it is still possible.
Moscow has disregarded the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) March 2022 order for Russia to “immediately suspend” its invasion of Ukraine.
A lawyer and expert on international justice named Johann Soufi told AFP that a decision against Israel would have a “very significant symbolic impact.”
“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.
