‘Stop killing Palestinians’
The World Court–the International Court of Justice (ICJ)—has given its verdict; there is "plausible" evidence that the Israelis are committing what amounts to genocide on the people of Palestine in Gaza. The judgment delivered on Friday in The Hague is only a preliminary one, not a conclusion that genocide has been committed. That will take months, if not years to determine. But the Court asked the Israelis to 'stop killing Palestinians' and gave the Israelis a month to report back that they have complied with its interim order.
The Court did not order an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, arguing that would be going against Israel's right to self-defence, a proviso provided in the UN Charter that 'outlawed' war. It only wanted the killings to stop. Some might see that as a contradiction; how many more deaths is the world going to witness in what has become the first time in history of a live televised documentary of genocide taking place?
South Africa's Foreign Minister who was at the forefront of her country's plaint against Israel, when Arab and Islamic states were vacillating, said that it was because the world stood by the people of South Africa that they won their freedom over apartheid and therefore, they had a moral obligation to speak on behalf of the oppressed of the world.
Ironically, the only judge to cast a dissenting vote on all counts was the Her Ladyship from Uganda. It was only last week that Uganda was elected to lead the Non-Aligned Movement which is overwhelmingly sympathetic to the sufferings of the Palestinians in Gaza. Uganda's UN ambassador was quick to disown his compatriot on the World Court pointing to Uganda’s voting pattern in support of Palestine at the UN. ICJ judges are expected to be independent of their governments who nominate them to the bench. However, NAM-watchers also noted that the Ugandan President, as the NAM host in Kampala last week, made no reference whatsoever to the situation in Gaza in his opening address, an odd co-occurrence between the speech at NAM and the dissenting vote at the ICJ.
The ICJ order will go to the UN Security Council now, where the United States has freely exercised its veto on every resolution against Israel's war on Gaza. Israel reacted to Friday's verdict predictably with defiance saying it is not going to stop what it is doing.
Friday's pronouncement by the highest court in the world was on matters relating to the 'mother of all crimes', and it is left to be seen how those who advocate a 'rules-based order' will react at the Security Council. Or will it be the usual selective rules-based order? Those who provide arms to Israel during this onslaught on the Palestinians are, meanwhile, put on notice for aiding and abetting genocide under the 1948 Punishment and Prevention of Genocide Convention, which still remains a mere 'scrap of paper' for the suffering Palestinians.