On December 29 South Africa, a state party to the Genocide Convention, filed an 84-page application in the International Court of Justice (ICJ, or World Court) alleging that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
As news from Gaza worsens, I can only hope and pray the International Court of Justice might offer some hope to stop the atrocities. News from multiple sources indicates Israel is very concerned about this.
APPLICATION INSTITUTING PROCEEDINGS
South Africa’s well-documented application alleges that “acts and omissions by Israel … are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent … to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group” and that “the conduct of Israel — through its State organs, State agents, and other persons and entities acting on its instructions or under its direction, control or influence — in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, is in violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention.”
Israel Is Terrified the World Court Will Decide It’s Committing Genocide. South Africa, a party to the Genocide Convention, charged Israel with genocide in the International Court of Justice. By Marjorie Cohn, TRUTHOUT, January 6, 2024
“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 South African application to open proceedings said.
“Provisional measures are necessary in this case to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention, which continue to be violated with impunity.”
South Africa launches case at UN court accusing Israel of genocide by Julian Borger, The Guardian, December 29, 2023
In its application, South Africa cited eight allegations to support its contention that Israel is perpetrating genocide in Gaza. They include:
- Killing Palestinians in Gaza, including a large proportion of women and children (approximately 70 percent) of the more than 21,110 fatalities and some appear to have been subjected to summary execution;
- Causing serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinians in Gaza, including maiming, psychological trauma, and inhuman and degrading treatment;
- Causing the forced evacuation and displacement of about 85 percent of Palestinians in Gaza — including children, the elderly and infirm, and the sick and wounded. Israel is also causing the massive destruction of Palestinian homes, villages, towns, refugee camps and entire areas, which precludes the return of a significant proportion of the Palestinian people to their homes;
- Causing widespread hunger, starvation and dehydration to the besieged Palestinians in Gaza by impeding sufficient humanitarian assistance, cutting off sufficient food, water, fuel and electricity, and destroying bakeries, mills, agricultural lands and other means of production and sustenance;
- Failing to provide and restricting the provision of adequate clothing, shelter, hygiene and sanitation to Palestinians in Gaza, including 1.9 million internally displaced persons. This has compelled them to live in dangerous situations of squalor, in conjunction with routine targeting and destruction of places of shelter and killing and wounding of persons who are sheltering, including women, children, the elderly and the disabled;
- Failing to provide for or ensure the provision of medical care to Palestinians in Gaza, including those medical needs created by other genocidal acts that are causing serious bodily harm. This is occurring by direct attacks on Palestinian hospitals, ambulances and other healthcare facilities, the killing of Palestinian doctors, medics and nurses (including the most qualified medics in Gaza) and the destruction and disabling of Gaza’s medical system;
- Destroying Palestinian life in Gaza, by destroying its infrastructure, schools, universities, courts, public buildings, public records, libraries, stores, churches, mosques, roads, utilities and other facilities necessary to sustain the lives of Palestinians as a group. Israel is killing whole families, erasing entire oral histories and killing prominent and distinguished members of society;
- Imposing measures intended to prevent Palestinian births in Gaza, including through reproductive violence inflicted on Palestinian women, newborns, infants and children.
Israel Is Terrified the World Court Will Decide It’s Committing Genocide. South Africa, a party to the Genocide Convention, charged Israel with genocide in the International Court of Justice. By Marjorie Cohn, TRUTHOUT, January 6, 2024
The Biden administration on Wednesday tore into South Africa for filing an application at the International Court of Justice to begin proceedings to declare that Jerusalem was violating its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention in its war against Hamas following the Gaza-ruling terrorist group’s murderous October 7 onslaught.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby called South Africa’s submission “meritless, counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.
“Israel is not trying to wipe the Palestinian people off the map. Israel is not trying to wipe Gaza off the map. Israel is trying to defend itself against a genocidal terrorist threat. So if we’re going to start using that word, Fine. Let’s use it appropriately,” Kirby said.
US lambasts ‘meritless’ South African request for ICJ to charge Israel with genocide by Jacob Magid and Jeremy Sharon, The Times of Israel, January 4, 2024
Kirby’s assertion that Israel is trying to prevent genocide is particularly preposterous, given the fact that since Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis on October 7, Israeli forces have killed at least 22,100 Gazans, about 9,100 of whom are children. At least 57,000 persons have been wounded and at least 7,000 are reported missing. Untold numbers of people are trapped beneath the rubble.
Israel Is Terrified the World Court Will Decide It’s Committing Genocide. South Africa, a party to the Genocide Convention, charged Israel with genocide in the International Court of Justice. By Marjorie Cohn, TRUTHOUT, January 6, 2024
The Israeli Foreign Ministry is instructing its embassies to press diplomats and politicians in their host countries to issue statements against South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice that accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, according to a copy of an urgent cable obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: The cable, sent by the Israeli Foreign Ministry on Thursday, illustrates Israel’s diplomatic action plan ahead of next week’s ICJ hearing: to create international pressure on the court to not issue an injunction that orders Israel to suspend its military campaign in Gaza.
Inside Israel’s plan to quash South Africa’s Gaza genocide case by Barak Ravid, AXIOS, Jan 5, 2024
Public hearings on South Africa’s request for provisional measures will take place on January 11 and 12 at the ICJ which is located in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. The hearings will be livestreamed from 4:00-6:00 a.m. Eastern/1:00-3:00 a.m. Pacific on the Court’s website and on UN Web TV. The court could order provisional measures within a week after the hearings.
Other states parties to the Genocide Convention can either request permission to intervene in the case filed by South Africa or file their own applications against Israel in the ICJ. South Africa’s application identifies several countries that have referred to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. They include Algeria, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Iran, Palestine, Türkiye, Venezuela, Bangladesh, Egypt, Honduras, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Malaysia, Namibia, Pakistan and Syria.
Israel Is Terrified the World Court Will Decide It’s Committing Genocide. South Africa, a party to the Genocide Convention, charged Israel with genocide in the International Court of Justice. By Marjorie Cohn, TRUTHOUT, January 6, 2024
Peace and Social Concerns Report 2014
Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative)
We ask the yearly meeting clerk to mail a copy of this letter to our elected representatives in the U.S. Congress. We also encourage Friends to use any parts of this for letters to others, such as newspaper editors:
Dear Representative/ Senator _,
The Israeli government, with U.S. aid, now has the most powerful military in the Middle East. In 2008 Israel attacked Gaza, with 1400 civilian casualties. In 2013 Israel attacked Lebanon, with 750 civilian casualties. Currently Israel is engaging in a massive military siege of Palestine, with over 800 civilian deaths so far. All three of these Israel assaults have involved devastating destruction of schools, hospitals, power plants, and other infrastructure.
Tragically, we the American taxpayers are paying for this human rights travesty. Israel receives 9.9 million U.S. dollars each day in military aid from us. This makes it our largest aid recipient in the world.
While Americans are struggling to make ends meet and our government struggles to maintain our own infrastructure, we are subsidizing Israel to conduct activities in direct opposition to international law.
We ask that no more military aid be given to the Israeli government.
In the Light of God’s Love,
Deborah Dakin, clerk
Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative)
Religious Society of Friends
In July 2014, during the annual sessions of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative), the Peace and Social Concerns Committee heard a presentation about the Israeli attacks in Gaza described above. Members of that committee attended a rally in support of Palestinians held in Iowa City during our Yearly Meeting sessions that year.
Polycrisis Center 
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