South Africa’s Gaza genocide case against Israel
Published
by
Richard Kuper
JVL Introduction
The hearings on South Africa’s application to the International Court of Justice opened on 10th January.
Here is a view from South Africa on possible outcomes.
It is particularly concerned as to whether an ICJ order will in fact stop Israel from continuing its brutal actions in Gaza. It fears it will not.
RK
This article was originally published by Daily Maverick on Tue 9 Jan 2024. Read the original here.
South Africa’s Gaza genocide case against Israel — how it will be argued, and the prospects for success
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“The bigger concern, however, is whether an ICJ order will in fact stop Israel from continuing its brutal actions in Gaza? Tragically, probably not”.
I’m more hopeful.
IF the ICJ agrees with South Africa’s case THEN any state, business or individual actively helping Israel’s slaughter and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians would be at risk of prosecution for complicity in genocide.
Few prospective defendants would wish to put themselves or their organisations at such risk … particularly as different types of legal action against perceived offenders have already begun in several countries. The most rational action for them would be to IMMEDIATELY stop whatever they’re doing (eg selling military goods to Israel) to put themselves at risk of prosecution.
Similarly, not even the USA and Biden could shrug off the reputational, political and economic harms of complicity in genocide arising from their assistance to Israel. Pressures across America and beyond are already forcing Biden to back-track. However reluctantly, Biden will dump Netanyahu and Israel rather than be the President who tarred America and his party with complicity in genocide.
Whether it succeeds or not it’s a real game-changer after months of moribund debate in the mainstream press by journalists (or editors) who wilfully exclude the historical context. Israel’s impunity and their arrogant sense of entitlement to bomb and invade rest on the mistaken unconditional support of the US the UK and some other EU governments. And it is a coherent response from the global South to the hypocrisy of the West and their proteges in the Arab world.