South Africa v Israel: The Genocide in Gaza
As the atrocities in Gaza continue, South Africa has made an application to the International Court of Justice, based on the claim, that Israel is committing a genocide.
On December 29th, 2023, the Republic of South Africa made an application to the International Court of Justice instituting proceedings against the State of Israel for violating the 1948 Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the Genocide Convention).
This document is remarkable, not only as it constitutes a strong case against Israel, based on ample evidence, documentation, reporting and solid argumentation, but also as test for the international community, for it to show where it really stands on this horrific conflict.
South Africa states, that the actions of Israel are genocidal because they are intended:
“to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group, that being the part of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip. The acts in question include [1] killing Palestinians in Gaza, [2] causing them serious bodily and mental harm, and [3] inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. The acts are all attributable to Israel, which has failed to prevent genocide and is committing genocide in manifest violation of the Genocide Convention, and which has also violated and is continuing to violate its other fundamental obligations under the Genocide Convention, including by failing to prevent or punish the direct and public incitement to genocide by senior Israeli officials and others.”
This is, needless to say, a serious allegation, yet in this remarkable 84-page document, South Africa clearly lays out prima facie evidence, demonstrating that Israel is in fact committing a genocide in Gaza.
It makes its case, firstly by laying out the background of the Israel-Palestine conflict, thus granting vital context for the understanding of the current Israeli assault.
It does so firstly, by explaining how Gaza and the West Bank have been under occupation since 1967, and how after Israel “withdrew” from Gaza in 2005, it placed a blockade on Gaza, blocking entry and exit for people, along with all import and export, except for what Israel chooses to allow in.
As is documented in the application, this has led to the Gazan population suffering immensely due to the economic scarcity, imposed on the by Israel. The document points out that the blockade has, among many others things, lead to:
839 Palestinians dying, between 2008 and 2021, while waiting for permits from Israel to leave Gaza urgent medical treatment. (Permits which have been difficult and frustrating to gain in any case).
Israel limiting the import of food, between 2007 and 2010 to limit food imports to a “humanitarian minimum”; basically allowing in only as many calories per person, which would be enough to keep them just above the line of starvation.
A 45 % unemployment rate, a 60 % poverty rate, and 80 % being dependant on humanitarian assistance.
The coastal aquifer, which is the sole source of drinking water, becoming polluted and the water unfit for consumption.
Pervasive power blackouts (most of the hours of the day)
What becomes clear from the text, is that Israel’s “withdrawal”, was truly just a change of how it conducted its occupation. Rather than raise settlements, it withdrew its civilian population, trapped the remaining Palestinians, and then decimated the population.
“If there is a hell on earth, it is the lives of children in Gaza” (2021) -UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
South Africa then further documents the other main source of suffering for the Palestinians in Gaza; the extremely asymmetrical and disproportional military assaults conducted by Israel:
“Between 29 September 2000 and 7 October 2023, approximately 7,569 Palestinians, including 1,699 children, were killed, including in those “four highly asymmetrical wars”, as well as other smaller military assaults, with tens of thousands of others injured.” (page 16)
It adds, that “a further 214 Palestinians, including 46 children were killed during the ‘Great March of Return’, which it describes as;
“a large-scale peaceful protest along the separation fence between Gaza and Israel, in which thousands of Palestinians participated every Friday for over 18 months, demanding that “the blockade imposed on Gaza be lifted and the return of Palestinian refugees” to their homes and villages in Israel”
It then includes key findings from Human Rights reports and UN fact-finding missions, which describe the major Israeli assaults on Gaza which have been carried out (page 16-24), demonstrating a damning case against Israel, based on numerous reports of indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civillian infrastructure, in its assaults which have been wildly disproportionate, in their scale of death and destruction.
A referenced report of a UN Fact-finding mission from 2009, after Israel’s ‘operation Cast Lead”, states that:
“While the Israeli Government has sought to portray its operations as essentially a response to rocket attacks in the exercise of its right to self- defence, the Mission considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: the people of Gaza as a whole. . . .”
The document then continues to give a background for the Palestinians outside Gaza, in the West Bank (and East Jerusalem), where it states that:
“The institutionalised regime of discriminatory laws, policies and practices applied by Israel subjects Palestinians to what constitutes an apartheid regime”
This claim is a key part of describing the lives of Palestinians, and is an especially potent claim made by a country infamous for its own history of apartheid. This claim was notably also made one month before the Oct. 7th attacks, by former Chief of the Mossad, Tamir Pardo.
Finally, the document describes the events of oct. 7th, in which it makes a statement worth keeping in mind, especially as critics of South Africa have argued that it is in support of Hamas:
“South Africa unequivocally condemns the targeting of Israeli and foreign national civilians by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups and the taking of hostages on 7 October 2023, as expressly recorded in its Note Verbale to Israel of 21 December 2023”
The next part of the document constitutes its actual claims against Israel for its actions since oct. 7th. (page 30-59).
It states, among other things, that:
“Over 21,110 Palestinians are reported to have been killed since Israel began its military assault on Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 70 per cent of whom are believed to be women and children”. (page 31)
“An additional estimated 7,780 people, including at least 4,700 women and children, are reported missing, presumed dead under the rubble of destroyed buildings — dying slow deaths — or decomposing in the streets where they were killed”.
“Nowhere is safe in Gaza, as Palestinians “have been killed in their homes, in places where they sought shelter, in hospitals, in UNWRA schools, in churches, in mosques, and as they tried 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””. (page 32)
“There are also reports of unarmed people — including Israeli hostages — being shot dead on sight, despite posing no threat, including while waving white flags.”"
“Israel is said to be dropping ‘dumb’ (i.e., unguided) bombs on Gaza, as well as heavy bombs weighing up to 2,000 lbs (900 kgs),196 which have a predicted lethal radius “of up to 360m”, and are “expected to cause severe injury and damage as far as 800 metres from the point of impact”.”
-Note, that these bombs are being dropped on the most densely populated place on this planet.
“Doctors, journalists, teachers, academics and other professionals are also being killed at wholly unprecedented rates.”
“Over 55,243 Palestinians have been wounded in Israel’s military attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the majority of them women and children.”
“The extreme levels of bombardment and lack of any safe areas are also causing severe mental trauma in the Palestinian population in Gaza”
“It is estimated that over 1.9 million Palestinians out of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people — approximately 85 per cent of the population — have been forced from their homes”
“Israel has now damaged or destroyed an estimated 355,000 Palestinian homes — amounting to 60 per cent of the entire housing stock in Gaza.”
The list of factors causing extreme suffering and death goes far beyond what has been extracted above, and this article is by no means an exhaustive account of the claims in the application.
South Africa then makes a case for genocidal intent of the Israeli government (page 59-69), in which it mainly presents statements by many of the highest ranking officials in Israel; the Prime Minister, the President, ministers of several sectors, and more.
Statements which demonise and dehumanise the population of Palestine to a degree that is difficult to fathom. In the words of Professor John Mearsheimer:
“One is reminded of how the Nazis talked about dealing with Jews when reading how Israelis in “positions of the highest responsibility” talk about dealing with the Palestinians.”
As an example, Israel’s Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant stated on Oct. 9th, that Israel was:
“imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” (page 60)
Based on all of this, South Africa asks the International Court of Justice to declare that Israel has breached its obligations under the Genocide Convention, and must (in several ways) ensure that it acts in alignment with its obligations.
South Africa’s case is, evidently to anyone reading it, very strong. Therefore, the international community is now faced with the prospect of taking a stance on the case, making this a revelatory moment; especially for the Western world, which generally embellishes itself as being morally superior to the rest of the world.
So far, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Turkey, Jordan, Namibia, Pakistan, the Maldives, Malaysia, are the most notable countries to show support for South Africa’s case.
Conversely, the US government has utterly dismissed it (with U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby deeming it “meritless, counterproductive, and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever”), while the Canadian government has expressed a high degree of skepticism of the “premises” of South Africa’s claims.
EU generally attempts to hold a middle-ground position, avoiding putting blame on Israel, despite being more than willing to criticise Hamas for its attack. Some member states, such as Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic have expressed either skepticism or condemnation of the case, and overall the EU seems to want to avoid expressing much at all about the case.
At this point, the governments of the Western nations are choosing to enable Israel’s actions, and it is moments like these, which should be looked upon, as revelations of what values they truly hold and abide by.
These governments have had little hesitation in making various claims of genocide against Russia in regards to its invasion of Ukraine, despite those claims being far weaker than those of made against Israel. By September 2023, around 1,5 years into the war, less than 10.000 civilians have been killed due to the war in Ukraine, of which less than 500 were children. Meanwhile, more than 25.000 civilians have died in Gaza in just over three months, of which 70 % are women or children (around 17.000), with many more injured or slowly dying under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
For Western governments it seems, that the Genocide Convention is cynically regarded as a political tool to be used against its enemies, rather than an actual guidance for their own moral judgements. This becomes especially clear from how the attitude of so many governments officials, when questioned on this case, has been dismissive in nature.
It remains to be seen how the Court will rule, and in any case, it is difficult to say which effect it would have on Israel, if the Court rules in favour of South Africa. What does seem certain though, is that a favourable ruling would be a strong message to the entire world, of recognition of the reality on the ground in Gaza, and furthermore proof of the ICJ’s own integrity in regards to prioritising justice above politics.
Regardless of how it rules though, this document marks an important historical event, as the truth of the suffering of the Palestinian people is finally being brought to light.
And as the truth of the situation becomes clear, the path to peace just might become clear as well.
This is the first part of series of articles covering this case. The next article will cover the ruling of the ICJ on this case.
South Africas application for instituting proceedings against Israel: https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00-en.pdf