South Africa has brought a case before the UN’s International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. South Africa will present its case on Thursday and Israel its defence on Friday.
The submission also calls on the court to order Israel to stop military operations there.
The ICJ will deliver only an opinion on the genocide allegation as the case is not a criminal trial, although it is being keenly watched.
Israel has vehemently rejected the accusation as „baseless”. Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the accusations „atrocious and preposterous”.
The ICJ (the UN court based in the Hague in the Netherlands) could rule quickly on South Africa’s request for Israel to suspend its military campaign – but a final ruling on whether Israel is committing genocide could take years.
ICJ rulings are theoretically legally binding on parties to the ICJ – which include Israel and South Africa – but are not enforceable.
For comparison, In 2022, the court ordered Russia to „immediately suspend military operations” in Ukraine, an order that was ignored.
William Schabas, a professor of international law who chaired a UN committee investigating Israel’s conflict with Hamas in 2014, said there is a low bar for the court to issue an injunction against Israel.
He told the BBC that South Africa needs to „demonstrate that there are elements that support its case”, for the court to issue an order, although this would not involve „making a definite decision as to whether or not genocide is actually taking place”.
South Africa has been highly critical of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, and its governing African National Congress has a long history of solidarity with the Palestinian cause – the inheritance of its own struggle against apartheid.
