THREAD: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued its ruling in response to South Africa’s invocation of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, accusing Israel of perpetrating the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
It has been my view that at this stage of the proceedings this case boils down to a single issue: whether the ICJ determines that South Africa has presented a plausible accusation that Israel is committing genocide,
and on this basis allows this case to move forward to a full hearing before the world’s supreme court. Everything else is secondary.
On this crucial, main point the Court’s verdict was unambiguous: the arguments presented by South Africa before the ICJ earlier this month were sufficiently compelling, and Israel’s rebuttal and denials unconvincing.
Therefore, the Court will now conduct a full and proper hearing to determine whether Israel is not only plausibly accused, but substantively responsible, for the crime of genocide.
History – with a capital H – was made today. As of 26 January 2024, Israel and its Western sponsors can no longer mobilize the Holocaust to shield themselves from accountability for their crimes against the Palestinian people.
Raz Segal, a professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, recently made the point that the Israeli state was born in impunity, with the Holocaust serving as an all-purpose shield against accountability for its crimes. No more.
The late Edward W. Said often spoke of the Palestinian people as “the victims of the Victims”, and the difficulties many in the West had conceiving of Israel, which claims to exist as a response to the Holocaust, as a state capable of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
No more. Israel is as of today associated with the crime of genocide primarily as perpetrator, not victim. Israel’s policies towards the Palestinian people will henceforth be judged on their own merits rather than against the long shadow of European history.
The ICJ today redefined “Never Again”. It is no longer a slogan that can be used by Israel to commit and justify crimes against others, but is now one that applies equally to Israel’s actions, and Palestinian victims.
ICJ judges are not diplomats who follow instructions from their governments. It was nevertheless particularly satisfying to see the Court’s ruling delivered by the presiding American judge, Joan E. Donoghue, who additionally voted in favor of each of the provisional measures.
It was a fitting retort to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s rush to judgement that South Africa’s case was “meritless”. I’d be very surprised if Blinken even bothered to read South Africa’s submission to the ICJ.
As far as he is concerned any accusation against Israel, any challenge to its impunity, any initiative to hold it accountable for its crimes, is by definition meritless.
The provisional measures ordered by the court, which are legally binding, are in my view of secondary importance. We should not confuse the ICJ with the United Nations Security Council.
Nevertheless read them because they are important. Israel must take “immediate” measures, immediately refrain from others – including incitement – and report back in 30 days. In other words Israel is in the dock and is being carefully watched.
The fact that the Court did not order a ceasefire which would be simply ignored by Israel, with the support of its Western sponsors, was expected and hardly what this case was about.
Finally, the ICJ ruling also imposes legal obligations upon all other signatories to the Genocide Convention, including the US and EU member states.
The sun does not rise in the west, and Western hypocrisy – the foundational principle of its rules-based international order - will not end anytime soon.
But the ICJ ruling lays the ground for also holding Israel’s sponsors responsible. This is the subject of a further hearing in the US later today. END
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