South Africa initiated proceedings against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest judicial body of the UN, alleging alleged violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, an international treaty that criminalizes the killing, attack and persecution of human groups based on racial, ethnic, national or religious criteria. South Africa's action was announced this Friday, December 29, on the same day that the UN Security Council again addressed, in an emergency meeting, the situation in the Gaza Strip, where nearly 190 Palestinians died in the last 24 hours due to Israeli bombings.
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The International Court of Justice (ICJ) confirmed this Friday, December 29, that it received documentation from South Africa to initiate a complaint procedure against Israel for allegedly committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
The South African initiative maintains that “Israel's acts and omissions” have a “genocidal character,” as they seek to “destroy the Palestinians of Gaza,” and asks the court in The Hague to act to prevent “severe and irreparable harm to the people of Palestine.” ”.
Johannesburg also expressed its concern, through a statement from its Foreign Ministry, “about the plight of civilians trapped in the current Israeli attacks”, and asked the ICJ to issue a provisional order to force the immediate suspension of military operations in Loop.
Both South Africa and Israel are signatories to the Genocide Convention. The ICJ could convene a hearing in the coming days to discuss Johannesburg's requests and an eventual decision would be binding, but the ability to enforce compliance is unclear.
This was shown by the Ukrainian case in March 2022, when the court issued an order to stop the attacks, which was never followed by Russia.
“Blood libel”, according to Israel
Tel Aviv immediately reacted by rejecting the actions taken by South Africa before the ICJ, calling them a “blood libel without legal basis or merit” and arguing that Johannesburg is “collaborating with a terrorist group that calls for the destruction of Israel.”
In a statement, the Israeli Foreign Ministry assured that “the people of Gaza are not enemies of Israel, which is making every effort to limit harm to non-combatants.”
The president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, has compared Israeli practices towards Palestinians with the segregation or “apartheid” regime that was in force for more than 40 years in his own country.
Updated figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas, indicate that the dead in the occupied territories since the offensive began on October 7 total more than 21,000, two thirds of them women and children, while 85% of the population, or what is the same 2.3 million people, have had to abandon their homes in the strip.
Crossfire
The permanent ambassadors of Israel and Palestine to the UN exchanged harsh accusations this Friday during their interventions in the Security Council, which was convened urgently after the most recent offensive caused 190 casualties on the Palestinian side in less than 24 hours.
Majed Bamya, Palestinian representative, ruled out that the “humanitarian catastrophe” that the Gaza Strip is experiencing is due to a war: “It is a tool used by Israel to pressure people and force them to move.”
Bamya also had words of reproach to the Security Council, for allegedly preventing him from presenting his call for a ceasefire.
On the Israeli side, Ambassador Gilad Erdan anticipated that the conflict is reaching a “point of no return” and warned that “the situation will escalate and could lead to an all-out war.”
UN Secretary General António Guterres also spoke out in this regard, issuing a statement while the Security Council session was taking place, warning that the spillover of the conflict “could have devastating consequences for the entire region.”
With AP, EFE and Reuters
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