Israel in the dock: trial in The Hague

WWhat happened on Thursday in the venerable Peace Palace in The Hague was historic. A delegation from Israel appeared there. It is the first time that the country has to answer in an interstate case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). And it's about the most serious accusation that the law has to offer: genocide.

Regardless of its outcome, the process has great impact. The Genocide Convention, which goes back to the Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, was brought into being in 1948 as a reaction to the Holocaust.

Initially, only the expedited procedure will be negotiated

South Africa, a country that is one of Israel's harshest critics and the Palestinians' closest ally, sued in The Hague. It's about their future, says Adila Hassam. She is one of the lawyers representing South Africa in The Hague. The process has “extraordinary significance,” after all, it is about “the essence of humanity,” said Hassam.

South Africa's Justice Minister Ronald Lamola added that Israel's “genocidal actions” have been “part of a continuum” since 1948. The Palestinians have suffered under occupation for 56 years and “apartheid” for 25 years. Lamola quotes Martin Luther King when he envisions, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

South Africa not only wants to establish in The Hague that Israel is committing genocide in response to Hamas' terrorist attacks. The government in Pretoria also wants to bring about an immediate end to the military action in Gaza through urgent proceedings. The ICJ should issue interim measures to “protect further, serious and irreparable violations of the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention,” the application states. A “fact-finding mission” should also begin its work.

Only the urgent procedure will be negotiated this week. South Africa will have the opportunity to present its arguments on Thursday, followed by Israel on Friday. The country has never signed the statute of the ICJ and is generally not subject to its jurisdiction. But things are different when it comes to genocide. The convention, which Israel has also ratified, stipulates that the Court has comprehensive jurisdiction here – not just for the countries that have acceded to its statute.

Israel would have to be proven to have a collective agenda

According to the convention, genocide is committed by anyone who kills members of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, “causes them serious physical or mental harm” or imposes living conditions on them that can lead to “physical destruction”. However, a certain intention must be added; International law experts speak of a “genocidal motive”. The acts must be committed with the intention of “destroying the group as such, in whole or in part,” the convention states. Israel would therefore have to be proven to have a collective agenda to kill Palestinians because they are Palestinians – and not to defend themselves against Hamas attacks.

The “mass and deliberate killing” of civilians by the Israeli military itself constitutes genocide, says Adila Hassam in The Hague. According to Palestinian figures, 23,210 people have been killed since the military offensive began in Gaza. At least 70 percent are women and children.

Images of mass graves are now being projected onto the wall in the Peace Palace hearing room. No one is spared, says the lawyer, not even newborns. She quotes a UN official who called Gaza a “graveyard for children.” Even more than bombs, there is a risk of mass death because the people in Gaza do not have enough to eat and medical care has collapsed. On the one hand, Israel is destroying the civilian infrastructure and, on the other hand, preventing international aid.