South Africa’s case for genocide against Palestinians: Is Israel relevant for the U.N. advisory opinion in the West Bank?

Israel is back on the International Court of Justice’s docket when hearings open into a U.N. request for an advisory opinion regarding Israeli policies in the West Bank.

A hearing on Friday concluded two-days of arguments in a case brought by South Africa, a longtime critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, against Israel for the alleged crime of genocide against Palestinians. The case is being heard by the UN’s International Court of Justice. One judge from South Africa and another from Israel were part of the court.

The lawyers from South Africa are going to argue for three hours in the Great Hall of Justice. Israel’s legal team will have three hours to respond.

She told The Associated Press in an email that it’s not a matter of killing enormous numbers of people. There must be an intent to destroy a group of people who are categorized by race or religion.

The world court, which rules on disputes between nations, has never judged a country to be responsible for genocide. The closest it came was in 2007, when it ruled that Serbia “violated the obligation to prevent genocide” in the July 1995 massacre by Bosnian Serb forces of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica.

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“It is particularly galling, given that those who are attacking Israel — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, as well as their supporter Iran — continue to call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews,” he said.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 23,200 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. Health Officials say two-thirds of the dead are women and children. The death toll does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

In a statement after the case was filed late last year, the Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry urged the court to “immediately take action to protect the Palestinian people and call on Israel, the occupying power, to halt its onslaught against the Palestinian people, in order to ensure an objective legal resolution.”

The Israeli military is trying to minimize civilian casualties while the Hamas uses Palestinian civilians as human shields.

“I think they have come because they want to be exonerated and think they can successfully resist the accusation of genocide,” said Juliette McIntyre, an expert on international law at the University of South Australia.

The ANC has been comparing Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank to the policies under the apartheid regime of white minority rule in South Africa, which limited most Blacks to ” homelands” before ending in 1994.

Hundreds of pro-Israeli protesters took to the streets near the courthouse with banners saying “Bring them home” in reference to the hostages still held by Hamas. People are holding Israeli and Dutch flags.

Lawyers for South Africa asked judges at Thursday’s hearings to impose binding preliminary orders on Israel, including an immediate halt to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

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About two-thirds of the dead in Gaza are women and children, according to health officials there. The death toll does not differentiate between people.

“Mothers, fathers, children, siblings, grandparents, aunts, cousins are often all killed together. This killing is nothing short of destruction of Palestinian life. It is done deliberately. No one is spared. Not even newborn babies. ,” said South African lawyer Hassim.

“The violence and the destruction in Palestine and Israel did not begin on Oct. 7, 2023. The Palestinians have experienced systematic oppression and violence for the last 76 years,” said South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola.

Israel says that the enemy it is fighting is the most ferocious attack on its territory since it was founded. Its leaders insist they are following international law and doing what they can to avoid harms to civilians. Hamas is blamed by Israel for the high death toll.

The case strikes at the heart of Israel’s national identity, which is rooted in the country’s creation as a Jewish state after the Nazi slaughter of 6 million Jews during World War II.

The White House would not say how it would respond if the court decides Israel committed genocide. But National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called the allegations “unfounded.”

Israel has denied accusations brought by South Africa in one of the biggest cases in history, one that has drawn international attention and protesters from both sides to the courthouse.

The scale of destruction in Gaza, the targeting of family home and civilians, the war being a war on children are all clear that genocidal intent is both understood and put into practice. The articulated intent is the destruction of Palestinian life,” lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said in opening statements Thursday.

“We live at a time when words are cheap in an age of social media and identity politics. The temptation to reach for the most outrageous term to vilify and demonize has become, for many, irresistible,” Israeli legal advisor Tal Becker told a packed auditorium at the ornate Palace of Peace in The Hague.

He said South Africa had put before the court a distorted, factual and legal picture. The whole of its case hinges on a deliberately organized, decontextualized and manipulated description of the reality of current hostilities.

Becker said that the applicants wanted to use this term in regards to 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 organizations.

In Israel’s opening arguments before the court on Friday, Israeli lawyer Tal Becker said Israel is “singularly aware” of why the Genocide Convention was adopted, referring to the systematic murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, which gave birth to the convention invoked in these proceedings.

Tembeka’s statement that Netanyahu’s reference was meant to justify genocide was confirmed by a South African legal scholar.

The South African delegation insisted that the genocidal intent is seen not only by the way Israel has launched its campaign but also by comments made by leaders like Netanyahu. In late October in an address to Israeli forces, Netanyahu invoked the story of Amalek, a figure in the Hebrew Bible who tried to destroy the Jewish people.

Hassim said the Israeli military dropped 6,000 bombs a week on Gaza in the first three weeks of its campaign and dropped 2,000-pound bombs onto areas declared safe by Israel, including refugee camps.

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It can have long-term consequences if a state refuses to comply with the court’s rulings, and they remind the other side of the international order they are on.

“They declare certain values of the international order,” said Alexianu, “It is valuable for other states and for the world community in general to have those values and those obligations reaffirmed in the long term.”