Brazil and Colombia promote from Latin America South Africa's complaint against Israel for genocide in Gaza

The Governments of Brazil and Colombia have joined the countries that diplomatically support the genocide complaint that South Africa filed at the end of the year against Israel due to the Gaza war, where 23,000 Palestinians have already died, that is, 1%. of the enclave's population. Both Executives announced their diplomatic support for this initiative hours before the hearing in The Hague began this Thursday in which the highest UN court has begun to analyze South Africa's request to immediately take precautionary measures, including a cessation of hostilities. Pretoria accuses “the highest level of the Israeli Government” of inciting genocide in Gaza with phrases such as “wiping Gaza off the face of the Earth.”

Brasilia affirms in your statement that “in light of the flagrant violations of international humanitarian law, the president [Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva] expressed its support for South Africa's initiative to ask the International Court of Justice to order Israel to immediately cease all acts and measures that may constitute genocide or related crimes under the terms of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”.

In addition to Brazil and Colombia, Pretoria's initiative to go to this court that judges States, not people, has garnered other support in the global south. Among the Latin American countries, Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba have also joined. From the rest of the world, Jordan, Turkey, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan and Maldives, the Arab League (which brings together 22 countries that share that language) and the organization of Islamic Countries.

For Colombia, the complaint before the UN court is “a brave step in the right direction.” His Foreign Ministry maintains that “it is very clear that the actions and measures adopted by the Government of Israel constitute acts of genocide,” according to a Foreign Affairs note that President Gustavo Petro also disseminated on his social networks. Bogotá urges the court to rule quickly when the hearings conclude and to make decisions “that allow the bloodbath in Gaza and the occupied territories to stop.”

The Brazilian Foreign Ministry recalls in its note that it immediately condemned “the terrorist attacks by Hamas on October 7” and reiterates that “such acts do not justify the indiscriminate, recurrent and disproportionate use of force by Israel against civilians.” The decision to support the South African complaint was announced after the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, received the Palestinian ambassador in Brasilia, Ibrahim Alzeben.

In the statement, Brasilia summarizes the effects of the Israeli offensive in a handful of data. It underlines that 70% of the 23,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza in these three months “are women and children” and that another “7,000 people are missing” under the rubble. Also that “80% of the population has been subject to forced transfer” and that “and the health, water, energy and food supply systems are collapsed, which characterizes collective punishment.”

For Bolivia, South Africa's move to go to international courts is “a historic step in the defense of the Palestinian people” and an “effort that should be accompanied by the international community that calls for respect for life,” the note states. of the Chancellery.

The International Court of Justice is now analyzing whether to order precautionary measures, as requested by South Africa, to stop an alleged genocide. You will only get into the merits of the complaint later and the case can take years. The court also has no coercive means to ensure that its sentences are carried out.

On October 7, an invasion by Hamas militiamen in Israel killed 1,200 people. As the military response of the Israeli Government has intensified and the victims in Gaza have increased, movements before international courts have multiplied. Last November, South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros and Djibouti submitted a request to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which tries people, to investigate the situation in Palestine.

Chile, the country where the largest community of Palestinian origin lives outside the Arab world, also intends to go to the International Criminal Court, as its ambassador to the UN announced on Tuesday in the General Assembly: “Chile will promptly present the referral of the situation in Palestine to the ICC Prosecutor's Office to request an investigation of the international crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories, to which we hope other countries can join,” said the ambassador, socialist Paula Narváez. “Chile is not indifferent to the pain of the Palestinian people,” added President Gabriel Boric, explaining why his country will go to the ICC. In parallel, the Government has sent its ambassador to the Netherlands to follow the UN Court hearing in The Hague on the precautionary measures in the genocide case that will continue this Friday.

The Palestinian cause is one that the Colombian president is most passionate about, who follows the escalation of the conflict closely and shares his opinions frequently through his X account. In recent months, Petro announced the opening of an Embassy in Palestine , called its ambassador to Israel for consultations, supported a complaint for crimes against humanity that Algeria presented to the International Criminal Court and asked that the UN admit Palestine as a full member.

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