South Africa accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza, demands UN court halt Israeli offensive

A two-day hearing at the International Court of Justice in the Hague concluded this week after South Africa accused Israel of genocide and demanded an immediate ceasefire of the country's military operations in Gaza, which began due to Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

The ICJ is one of the principal judicial organs of the United Nations, and it deals with disputes between states. On Dec. 29, South Africa filed a case with the court alleging that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza, as defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. 

Hearings were held on Thursday and Friday. While it may take several years before the case concludes, the subject of the hearings was South Africa's request for provisional measures, which it asked the ICJ to issue "as a matter of extreme urgency."

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The measures requested include a call for Israel to suspend military operations in and against Gaza and, in accordance with the Genocide Convention, to which Israel and South Africa are signatories, to "take all reasonable measures within their power to prevent genocide."

South Africa accused Israel of "destroying Palestinian life in Gaza" through the destruction of universities, mosques, schools and other structures. South Africa also alleged that Israel is responsible for the deaths of over 21,000 Palestinians.

However, the accuracy of such numbers is difficult to determine, as the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry's death toll figures don't distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths. Those figures also don't differentiate between people killed by the Israeli military and those killed by Hamas or other Palestinian militants. 

After Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, slaughtering at least 1,200 people, primarily civilians, and seizing around 240 others as hostages, Israel declared itself in a state of war.

The Israel Defense Forces began airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, followed by the incursion of ground troops and armored vehicles. The purpose of the operation is to eradicate Hamas, a terror group that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, and secure the release of the hostages. 

Another claim made by South Africa is that the "acts of genocide" should be placed in "the broader context of Israel's conduct towards Palestinians during its 75-year-long apartheid, its 56-year-long belligerent occupation of Palestinian territory and its 16-year-long blockade of Gaza."

Responding to the claims, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is fighting "terrorists" and "lies." 

"Today, again, we saw an upside down world, in which the State of Israel is accused of genocide at a time when it is fighting genocide," Netanyahu said in a statement Thursday. "Israel is fighting against murderous terrorists who committed horrific crimes against humanity: They slaughtered, they raped, they burned, they dismembered, they beheaded — children, women, the elderly, young men and young women."

"South Africa's hypocrisy screams to the high Heavens," Netanyahu added. "Where was South Africa when millions of people were being murdered and uprooted from their homes in Syria and Yemen, by whom? By Hamas's partners. The world is upside down. Where were you?"

In comments emailed to The Christian Post, Jonathan Feldstein, an Orthodox Jew and Jewish nonprofit professional who regularly contributes to Christian news outlets, referred to the allegations of genocide against Israel as "baseless," highlighting the growing Palestinian Arab population.

As Feldstein noted, Gaza has 2 million residents, surpassing the total number from 1948, the year of Israel's founding. He stated that, excluding some 2 million Israeli-Arabs, the estimated Palestinian-Arab population is between 5 to 6 million. 

"One would think that for a country which made the desert bloom, has innovated and contributed countless medical, technological, civil and cultural innovations to the world with such an unparalleled rate of success, if Israel had set out to conduct a genocide, it would be much more successful,'" he wrote. "The numbers alone prove how allegations of Israeli committing genocide would be considered the worst genocide ever, an abysmal failure." 

Feldstein questioned why Hamas is not on trial, citing the terror group's charter, which explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel and Jews. In the revised charter, Hamas uses the mantra "from the river to the sea," which, as Feldstein and other critics contend, means to "free" the land of Jews. 

The charter serves as a playbook, Feldstein stated, one that does not call for a peaceful coexistence but instead advocates for armed resistance. He contrasted this with Israel's founding document, which calls for "peace and good neighborliness." 

"Officially, Israel is on trial at the ICJ. But the reality is that the world is on trial for even entertaining South Africa's specious claims. The ICJ can either redeem itself and reject South Africa's claims, or call into question its own credibility and that of the nations of the world which it represents," Feldstein wrote.

Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement that "South Africa's case is about Israel's obligations under the Genocide Convention and puts its conduct in Gaza in sharp focus before the United Nations' highest judicial body."

"South Africa has asked the World Court to issue urgent measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza who face catastrophic living conditions as a result of war crimes carried out by Israeli authorities," Jarrah said.