In an interim judgment, the United Nations’ International Court of Justice on Friday ruled that Israel must take measures to prevent genocide in Gaza, but it stopped short of ordering an immediate cease-fire in Israel’s war with Hamas. The ICJ ruled that it has jurisdiction to consider the landmark case brought by South Africa against Israel, and it rejected Israel’s request for the case to be dismissed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement issued quickly after the court’s ruling, slammed the genocide allegation against his country as “not only false, it’s outrageous.”
South Africa alleges that “acts and omissions” committed by Israel as part of its offensive in Gaza “are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.”
The court’s president Joan E. Donoghue said Friday in the court at The Hague, Netherlands, that, based on an initial assessment of Israel’s actions and remarks from Israeli leaders, it would not accept Israel’s request to dismiss the case as there were plausible claims of possible genocidal acts. The ICJ did not order an immediate cease-fire, but it did order Israel to take some provisional measures.
First, the court said Israel must “take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of the (Genocide) convention” and “ensure with immediate effect that its military does not commit any acts described” in the above measure. It said Israel must do everything it can to ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of genocide.
The court also said Israel must “take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza strip,” and “take immediate and effective measures to ensure the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions” facing Palestinians in Gaza.
Finally, the court ordered Israel to submit a report to it “on all measures taken to give effect to this order” within a month.
South Africa filed its case at the ICJ in December, seeking an interim order by the court for Israel to immediately halt its military operations in Gaza.
Such an order would have been surprising, however, according to Cathy Powell, a professor of public law at the University of Cape Town, “because no one has denied we are dealing with an armed conflict,” and the lopsided nature of that conflict between a nation and a widely-recognized terror group.
She said South Africa’s legal team had done an “excellent job making their case,” but “what it didn’t do was look at the relationship between two parties in armed conflict, where you tie one party’s hands, who are signed to the genocide convention, when you have no say over the other, non-signatory party, Hamas.”
The ICJ is the U.N.’s top court and its rulings are binding, but it has no power to enforce them.
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