SA expecting a court order on Israel case soon
While no date has been set for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to issue an order arising from SA’s genocide charge against Israel in Gaza, advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi says he expects it will be made relatively soon as blood continues to spill in the Middle East.
SA applied to the court sitting in The Hague, Netherlands, to order the suspension of military operations in Gaza, arguing Israel committed genocide against the Palestinian people after the attacks by Hamas in Israel on October 7 2023. The hearings were on Thursday and Friday when Israel and SA made oral presentations.
Ngcukaitobi, speaking after the SA legal team members returned to the country, was hopeful the judges could deliver an order soon.
“Nobody knows what a court will decide. We expect an outcome relatively soon. I do not know when, but it will be relatively soon. It is a matter of urgency. They understand the weight of the responsibility on their shoulders,” he said.
ICJ president, judge Joan Donoghue, said the court would make an order “as soon as possible”.
“The court will render its order on the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by SA as soon as possible. The agents of the parties will be advised on the date, in due course, in which the court would deliver the order in a public sitting.”
In its application SA alleged Israel had violated the Genocide Convention, saying: “SA unequivocally condemns all violations of international law by all parties, including the direct targeting of Israeli civilians and other nationals and hostage-taking by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.
“No armed attack on a state’s territory no matter how serious — even an attack involving atrocity crimes — can, however, provide any possible justification for, or defence to, breaches of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The acts and omissions by Israel complained of by SA are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of Palestinian nationals.”
Israel’s legal team asked the court to reject SA’s requests and dismiss the case. Tal Becker, legal adviser to Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs, told the court SA was seeking to “demonise” the Jewish state with the genocide charge. Becker told the court Israel’s armed forces were merely defending its citizens after 1,200 people were killed during the Hamas attacks on October 7, a day set for the Jewish holy day of Simchat Torah.
THE CIVILIAN SUFFERING IN THIS WAR, LIKE IN ALL WARS, IS TRAGIC AND HEARTBREAKING
“The state of Israel is aware why the Genocide Convention, which has been invoked in these proceedings, was adopted. Seated in our collective memory is the systematic murder of 6-million Jews as part of a premeditated and heinous programme for their annihilation.
’The applicant has sought to invoke this term in the context of Israel’s conduct in a war it did not start and did not want, a war in which Israel is defending itself against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organisations whose brutality knows no bounds.
“The civilian suffering in this war, like in all wars, is tragic and heartbreaking. As this court has already made it clear, the Genocide Convention was not designed for the brutal impact of intensive hostilities on the civilian population even when the use of force raises very serious issues of international law and involves unanimous suffering and continuing loss of life,” Becker told the court.