The International Court of Justice adjourned its session today, Friday, after hearing the Israeli legal team in the case of committing genocide in Gaza, while South Africa, the plaintiff, said that Tel Aviv failed to respond to the evidence presented.
The court’s judges will examine the arguments of both parties after they heard yesterday, Thursday, the justifications and evidence presented by South Africa, and then the Israeli response on Friday.
The court is expected to issue a ruling this month regarding a possible urgent decision ordering Israel to stop the war, but it will not quickly rule on genocide charges because this issue may take years.
For his part, South African Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola said – in a press conference in front of the court in The Hague – that Israel failed to respond to the evidence presented by his country, and did not provide anything to refute the facts of which it was accused.
Lamola described the Israeli responses as “unbalanced” and said that Tel Aviv seemed unable to condemn the actions of its soldiers, stressing that the statements of Israeli officials regarding the genocide could not be ignored.
He pointed out that the United Nations admitted that it could not provide humanitarian aid to the residents of Gaza due to the Israeli bombing.
The South African team rejected Israel’s accusation that it represented the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) before the court, and said, “We do not represent Hamas… Rather, this team represents the people of South Africa.”
The team added, “Israel’s claim that we praised Hamas after the October 7 attack is baseless and we reject and condemn it.”
He continued, “We do not agree with what Hamas did, but we do not consider it a terrorist organization, and we deal with all Palestinian parties.”
Israel’s responses
Earlier today, the court heard the response of the Israeli team, which demanded that South Africa’s request to take emergency measures to stop the war be rejected, saying that halting military operations would prevent Israel from “defending itself.”
Israel’s representative before the court, Tal Becker, said, “The attempt to use genocide as a weapon in the text currently submitted to the court presents a very distorted picture of what is happening with empty words.”
Baker added that if there were acts that might amount to genocide, they were committed against Israel, according to his claim.
On the other hand, supporters of the Palestinian people organized a march in The Hague carrying Palestinian flags, and followed the court proceedings on a giant screen outside. While the Israeli delegation was speaking, they chanted, “Liar! Liar!”
In Cape Town, South Africa, a rally was organized in support of Palestine with the participation of Mandla Mandela, grandson of the late South African leader Nelson Mandela, who led the struggle against the apartheid regime.
“My grandfather considered the Palestinian struggle to be the greatest moral issue of our time,” Mandela’s grandson said during the vigil.
South Africa filed the lawsuit before the International Court of Justice on December 29, accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to a devastating war for more than 3 months that has left tens of thousands martyred and wounded and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
