Israel, South Africa to face off at UN top court in Gaza genocide case • FRANCE 24 English

Fernand first of all just to bring us up to date with exactly what this case is all about then so this case was brought by South Africa on the 29th of December and it says Israel is violating the genocide convention which was signed in 1948 uh now it’s signed by both parties

By Israel and South Africa which is what allows South Africa to bring this case here at all now the genocide Convention of course um aims to prevent acts of genocide that means acts that are uh aiming to wholly or partially um eradicate a group based on their nationality ethnicity or religion and

South Africa says that is what is happening here in Gaza it uh filed a 48 page um document in which it outlined you know how Israel was um preventing food and water humanitarian assistance medicine shelter um from the gazan people and of course also talking about the immense destruction the bombing and

The large number of people killed more than 20 th000 which is one in 100 of the people in the Gaza Strip now the two have traded Bobs in the leadup to this you mentioned what the Israeli Prime Minister said South Africa yesterday said that they’re only doing this to

Prevent the on uh ongoing Onslaught in Gaza much more of this heated rhetoric to come in the opening statements by South Africa’s agent here when this starts at 10: and of course a heated case being followed by hundreds of people here a huge Pro Palestinian demonstration taking part of just a few

Hundred meters away big screen where people will be watching and an Israeli demonstration taking place here as well so temper is running High over this very loaded question of whether Israel is committing genocide Fern now what do we know of what will actually happen in core and of course depending which way

It goes what the consequences of this might actually be so the important thing Stuart is that today is not about whether Israel is committing genocide that is a case that will take years to prove this is a quick thing provisional measures me which means emergency measures South Africa

Says these measures need to be taken now to stop the genocide happening now the measures they’ve called for include an ending of the military operation as you mentioned but also increasing access to humanitarian Aid they want evidence to be preserved of any crimes that are being committed and they want also

Military personnel to be punished now the court can go along with this they can also provide their own measures they can call for a ceasefire for example a temporary one we’ll have to see what they do this will be quite quick I mean you know this is an emergency measure so

We’ll have a verdict in a couple of weeks uh South Africa starts today tomorrow we’ll have Israel having their rebuttal their defense um so uh but you know they are taking this seriously I mean Israel often does not appear in international cases here they are present they have sent a judge a former

Chief Justice a holocaust Survivor to join the 15 judge bench South Africa has also sent a judge to join the court who was in Robin Island so both countries really sending their top Rass um and taking this very very seriously because of course although this verdict when it

Comes through will not be enforcable it is legally binding uh and of course it matters on the world stage it matters in public opinion I mean when this court says that you should stop an invasion that carries weight however I must say if you look at the past Ukraine also was

Very quick to come to this court in 2022 after the Russian invasion then the court very quickly ruled that that Invasion should stop of course what we’ve seen is Russia has done no such thing uh and again because the UN Security Council is the top organ that can enforce rulings from this court

Where of course Russia has a veto and Israel’s Ally America the United States has a Visa has a veto um it’s very unlikely to be enforced but of course it does carry a huge diplomatic and um moral weight I guess on the international stage when there is a a ruling from this court

Israel will defend itself in the United Nations’ highest court starting Thursday against allegations that its military campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide. “Tensions are running high over this very loaded question of whether Israel is committing genocide,” says FRANCE 24’s Fernande van Tets, reporting outside the ICJ in the Hague with the latest.

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17 comments

  2. ANC government and the Muslims that wormed there religion and evil ways into SA, support HAMAs …not us South Africans..they are terrorists –evil sticks together thats why they support Hamas

  4. Arab nations' leaders like MBS and MBZ tried to persuade South Africa 🇿🇦 not to go ahead with this at the ICJ, but kudos to ANC for taking charge and presenting the case. Not all battles are fought for victory; some are fought to tell the world that someone was there who stood against tyranny. Kudos to Africa.

  15. This is rich coming from a government/ country that supports the ending of the lives of South Africa's agriculturists.

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