Spain joins SA’s case at the ICJ

Spain last week said it will join SA’s case at the International Court of Justice where Pretoria has accused Israel of ‘genocide’ in the Gaza Strip. ‘Our sole goal is to put an end to the war and to advance on the road of applying the two-state solution’, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told journalists. The Mail & Guardian reports that his statement came a week after Spain, along with Ireland and Norway, recognised the state of Palestine, sparking fury from Israel. SA brought the case before The Hague last year. It alleges that Israel’s Gaza offensive, launched in retaliation for an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel, breached the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. Albares, asked if he felt Israel’s actions in Gaza amounted to genocide, said it was up to the court to decide. ‘At the moment we see a large-scale war that does not distinguish between civilian and military targets in Gaza, as well as the enormous risk of regional spillover,’ he added. Several Latin American nations, including Colombia and Mexico, have already joined SA’s proceedings before the court. However, no European country has previoulsy taken that step. The ICJ last week ordered Israel to ensure ‘unimpeded access’ to UN-mandated investigators to look into allegations of genocide.