SA back at ICJ for genocide hearings

SA today resumes its genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) with a fresh evidence about attacks on civilians, schools, hospitals and places of worship since the Jewish state began its onslaught in Gaza just over a year ago. ANC deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane told the Sunday Times ‘substantial’ fresh evidence would be lodged in the second phase of Pretoria’s case. It initiated the case against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government in December, saying its assault on Gaza amounted to genocide against Palestinians. In January, the World Court issued its first order, saying SA’s genocide concerns were plausible and ordering Israel ‘to pre­vent ... killing of mem­bers of the (Palestinian) group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group’.

In May, the court issued new orders, among them an instruction to Israel to ‘immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destru­tion in whole or in part’. The court has no way to enforce its orders, and Israel has rejected them. The Sunday Times notes that Mokonyane said the delegation would sub­mit first-hand accounts from victims of the war when the case resumes, as well as evid­ence from experts about malnutrition in Gaza and the risk of polio out­breaks. ‘The evid­ence shows famine, people staying days and months without food, where humanitarian goods were not allowed into Gaza and into any other place where the Palestini­ans have sought refuge,’ she said.