South Africa at ICJ: Israelis celebrate Genocide of Palestinians

Listing the genocidal acts of the Israeli Occupation Forces, Adila Hassim said the Palestinians in Gaza are subjected to relentless bombing wherever they go. Read More

Friday January 12, 2024 11:52 AM , ummid.com News Network

[South African lawyer Adila Hassim representing South Africa at the International Court of Justice Thursday January 11, 2024.]

The Hague (Netherlands): The South African lawyers while deposing before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Thursday January 11, 2024 said Israelis treat the Palestinians like ‘animals’ and celebrate their destruction, massacre and genocide in Gaza.

Deposing before the International Court of Justice, which comprises of 15 judges from different countries of the world, the South African team of lawyers played video clips and presented documents and testimonies to establish that the Israeli military offensive in Gaza is being carried out with “intent to genocide”.

The South African lawyers at the ICJ said the Israeli occupation soldiers are not only committing but also celebrating the genocide of Palestinians and destruction of Gaza.

“The destruction is celebrated by the Israeli army. Soldiers film themselves joyfully detonating entire apartment blocks and town centres, erecting the Israeli flag over the wreckage, seeking to re-establish Israeli settlements on the rubble of Palestinian homes and thus extinguishing the very basis of Palestinian life in Gaza”, Adila Hassim, a lawyer presenting South Africa’s Gaza genocide case at the ICJ said while participating in the first round of argument Thursday.

Another South African lawyer, Tembeka Nicholas Ngcukaitobi, who represented South Africa during the ICJ public hearing on the first day, also said Israeli soldiers in Gaza were filmed dancing, chanting, and singing ‘May their village burn, May Gaza be erased’ and this has become a trend.

“There is now a trend among the soldiers to film themselves committing atrocities against civilians in Gaza, in a form of “snuff” video”, Ngcukaitobi said adding that the “genocide of Palestinians is state policy nurtured at the highest levels of Israel”.

Listing the genocidal acts of the Israeli Occupation Forces, Adila Hassim said the Palestinians in Gaza are subjected to relentless bombing wherever they go, and quoted the UN Secretary General who said, “Nowhere is safe in Gaza”.

“They (the Palestinians) are killed in their homes, in places where they seek shelter, in hospitals, in schools, in mosques, in churches, and as they try to find food and water for their families. They have been killed if they failed to evacuate, in the places to which they fled, and even while they attempted to flee along Israeli declared safe routes”, she said.

“The level of killing is so extensive that those whose bodies are found are buried in mass graves, often unidentified”, she said showing the images of mass graves.

6,000 bombs per week

Adila further said that Israel deployed 6,000 bombs per week in the first three weeks of its military offensive that started on Oct 7. They deployed at least 200 two-thousand-pound bombs in southern areas of Palestine designated as “safe” and in the North, including refugee camps.

“2000-pound-bombs are some of the biggest and most destructive bombs available. They are dropped by lethal fighter jets that are used to strike targets on the ground, by one of the world’s most resourced armies”, she said at the ICJ.

“Israel has killed an unparalleled and unprecedented number of civilians, with the full knowledge of how many civilian lives each bomb will take”, she said.

Adila said while bombing the civilian areas of Gaza, Israel did not spare women and even newborn babies and left many families without any survivor.

“More than 1,800 Palestinian families in Gaza have lost multiple family members, and hundreds of multigenerational families have been wiped out, with no remaining survivors — mothers, fathers, children, siblings, grandparents, aunts, cousins — often all killed together”, she said.

Hunger as weapon

Asserting that Israel has forcefully displaced the Palestinians from Gaza multiple times, Adila said, “This forceful displacement “has been deliberately calculated to cause widespread hunger, dehydration and starvation.”

“Israel’s campaign has pushed Gazans to the brink of famine. An unprecedented 93% of the population in Gaza is facing crisis levels of hunger. Of all the people in the world currently suffering catastrophic hunger, more than 80 percent are in Gaza”, she said.

“The situation is such that experts are now predicting that more Palestinians in Gaza may die from starvation and disease than airstrikes, and yet Israel continues to impede the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians, not only refusing to allow sufficient aid in, but removing the ability to distribute it through constant bombardment and obstruction”, she added.

Prof John Dugard SC, Counsel and Advocate for South Africa in the case against Israel at ICJ, described in detail how South Africa before approaching the UN Court reminded Israel – directly and through various platforms including the UN Security Council (UNSC), that its action in Gaza is genocide and war crimes.

“The South African government repeatedly voiced its concerns, in the Security Council and in public statements, that Israel’s actions had become genocidal. South Africa repeated this accusation at a meeting of BRICS on 21 November 2023 and at an Emergency Special Session of the UN General Assembly on 12 December 2023. No response from Israel was forthcoming”, he said.

“As a matter of courtesy, before filing the present application, on 21 December 2023, South Africa sent a Note Verbale to the Embassy of Israel to reiterate its view that Israel’s acts of genocide in Gaza amounted to genocide — that it, as a State Party to the Genocide Convention, was under an obligation to prevent genocide from being committed. Israel responded by way of a Note Verbale that failed to address the issues raised by South Africa in its Note and neither affirmed nor denied the existence of a dispute”, he explained.

“Despite these harsh accusations, Israel has persisted in its genocidal acts against the population of Gaza”, John Dugard said.

"Provisional measures"

At the end of the South African oral arguments, Prof Vaughan Lowe detailed the provisional measures the country is requesting the ICJ order, including for Israel to immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza, desist from the deprivation of access to adequate food and water and other humanitarian assistance; and ensure that Israeli officials and others refrain from direct and public incitement to commit genocide and punish those who do.

Prof Lowe also claimed that Israel’s campaign against Hamas was not covered by Article 51 of the UN charter permitting a country to defend itself from attack, since, he contended, Israel remains in occupation of Gaza due to its control of its access points.

“Israel says it aims to destroy Hamas. But months of bombing, flattening entire residential blocks, cutting off food and water to an entire population cannot credibly be argued to be a manhunt for Hamas,” Prof Lowe alleged.

Citing UN officials, Prof Lowe said the suspension of Israel’s military operations was critical in enabling the provision of humanitarian relief to Palestinians in Gaza.

In front of the International Court, Prof Lowe also answered the question why South Africa is not filing lawsuit against Hamas for its action on Oct 7.

“This case concerns with the Israel's actions in Gaza. Hamas is not a state and cannot be a party to the Genocide Convention and cannot be a party to these proceeding”, he said.

“South Africa understands that not all acts are Genocide. There are acts that are unlawful but not genocide. And, there are other forums to address them”, he said.

The ICJ hearing on Thursday was adjourned after the first round of the hearing participated by the lawyers representing South Africa.

Today, Friday January 12, 2024, is reserved for Israel to defend itself at the UN Court and respond to the allegations against it.

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