Jerusalem
Reuters
Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice in the Hague to contest South Africa’s genocide accusations over the war with Hamas in Gaza, an Israeli government spokesman said on Tuesday.
South Africa asked the ICJ on Friday for an urgent order declaring that Israel was in breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention in its crackdown against Hamas.
The Palestinian flag is seen on a block of flats in Bo-Kaap where artists and residents painted it in support of Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Cape Town, South Africa, on 19th December, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Esa Alexander/File photo
“The State of Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice at The Hague to dispel South Africa’s absurd blood libel,” spokesman Eylon Levy told an online briefing.
“We assure South Africa’s leaders, history will judge you, and it will judge you without mercy,” Levy said.
South Africa has for decades backed the Palestinian cause for statehood in Israeli-occupied territories. It has likened the plight of Palestinians to those of the Black majority in South Africa during the apartheid era, a comparison Israel strongly denies.
The ICJ, sometimes known as the World Court, is the United Nations venue for resolving disputes between states. Israel’s foreign ministry has said the suit was “baseless.”
Lawyers representing South Africa are preparing for the hearing scheduled on 11th and 12th January, Clayson Monyela, a spokesperson for South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, said in a post on the platform X.
The war was triggered by a cross-border attack by Hamas Islamist militants on 7th October, which Israel says killed 1,200 people.
Israel responded with an air and land assault that has killed more than 22,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. While its casualty figures do not differentiate between fighters and civilians, the ministry has said that 70 per cent of Gaza’s dead are women and those under 18. Israel disputes Palestinian casualty figures and says it has killed 8,000 fighters.
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Levy listed a series of measures Israel’s military has taken to minimise harm to non-combatants.
He said Hamas bore full moral responsibility for the war it started and was “waging from inside and underneath hospitals, schools, mosques, homes and UN facilities”, Levy said.
He added, without elaborating, that South Africa was complicit in Hamas’ crimes against Israelis.
Hamas denies using Gaza’s population as human shields.
– Additional reporting by BHARGAV ACHARYA in Johannesburg, South Africa
