Sadly, humanity in a war-torn Gaza Strip is doomed because of an atrocious miscarriage of justice. Israel has turned Gaza into a genocide inflicted hellscape: manifesting the horrors of ethnic cleansing, starvation and displacement of the hapless Palestinians. Against this backdrop, South Africa filed an application instituting proceedings against Israel before the ICJ, requesting the court to initiate provisional measures” concerning alleged violations by Israel of its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in relation in the Gaza Strip,” according to a ICJ statement. In Gaza, at least 22, 141 Palestinians have been killed and 55,603 injured in Israeli attacks since October 7.
What is the Genocide Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide? The Genocide Convention was the first human rights treaty adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 9 December 1948 and signified the international community’s commitment to ‘never again’ after the atrocities committed during the Second World War. Its adoption marked a crucial step towards the development of international human rights and international criminal law as we know it today. The ICJ is a well-established court that has exercised jurisdiction over disputes between states on a wide variety of subjects over many years.
Article I of the Genocide Convention states: The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish. Article II In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Article 3 states that these acts shall be punishable: (a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide. Article IX states that disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfillment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or for any of the other acts enumerated in article III, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.
The South African contention: In a statement from South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), the government said the application against Israel was filed last Friday. “Israel, since 7 October 2023 in particular, has failed to prevent genocide and has failed to prosecute the direct and public incitement to genocide,” DIRCO said in a statement. South Africa has backed the Palestinian cause for statehood in Israeli-occupied territories for decades, likening the plight of Palestinians to those of the Black majority in South Africa during the repressive apartheid era, a comparison that Israel vehemently denies. South Africa has been a fierce critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Many there, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, have compared Israel’s policies regarding Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank with South Africa’s past apartheid regime of racial segregation.
South Africa’s filing alleged Israel was violating its obligations under the treaty, drafted in the wake of the Holocaust, which makes it a crime to attempt to destroy a people in whole or in part.
It asked the court to issue provisional, or short-term, measures ordering Israel to stop its military campaign in Gaza, which it said were “necessary in this case to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people.”And yet, forced displacement, what is commonly called ethnic cleansing, is an act of genocide—which has been historically figured in genocidal processes. Almost 1.9 million people, or over 80% of the population, have been displaced across the Gaza Strip since October 7.
Israel’s genocidal crimes: amid the many horrors of the Gaza war, Israel has committed infanticide, a grave crime against humanity by killing more than 10000 children In Gaza. Moreover, the Israeli military targeted journalists, medical personnel, ambulances, schools, places of worship, universities, shelters and hospitals. Over 43000 of homes in Gaza have been completely destroyed, as well as water, electricity, telecommunications and energy infrastructure severely damaged, rendering conditions of life near impossible for Palestinians. Israel’s war is pushing Gaza into famine and a staggering 90% of the people there are on the brink of starvation, UK-based anti-poverty organization Oxfam warned.
On November 2, United Nations experts said in a joint statement that Palestinians in Gaza were at “grave risk of genocide.” A recent report by the (US) Office of the Director of National Intelligence estimated that about 45 percent of air-to-ground munitions used by Israel have not been “smart” bombs, indicating that the intent is sheer destruction not the killing of only Hamas fighters.’. Whereas, more than 800 scholars have alarmed the Biden Administration about the ongoing crime of genocide in Gaza.
Needless to say, the Israeli army not only committed the genocidal actions, but Israeli leaders expressly and publicly mentioned they had the specific intent of destroying the freedom fighter group. Amid the growing international concern regarding the Gaza genocide, a UN panel– titled ‘2023 war in Gaza: The responsibility to prevent genocide’—tasked to examine the legal implications of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since 7 October and shed light on the applicability of key legal frameworks including those defining Genocide”–has also concluded that “genocide is already happening in Gaza’’.
The right to self-defence under ‘Article‘’ (unjustifiably invoked by Israel and supported by Israel’s western allies) , can be invoked when the state is threatened by another state, which is not the case of Israel ‘s ongoing war in Gaza, as many legal experts, including the UN rights rapporteurs believe Gaza in effect has been under Israeli control.
Thus, the South Africans must be credited with raising this argument echoing globally before the World Court: how can a large portion of the civil population in the Gaza Strip be ruthlessly killed, starved and displaced by the Israeli military forces merely on account of targeting a few Hamas resistance operatives?
—The writer, an independent ‘IR’ researcher-cum-international law analyst based in Pakistan, is member of European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group on IR, Critical Peace & Conflict Studies, also a member of Washington Foreign Law Society and European Society of International Law. He deals with the strategic and nuclear issues.
views expressed are writer’s own.
