THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — Lawyers for Israel told the United Nations’ highest court on Friday there was no genocide occurring in Gaza and argued it has the right to self-defense.
During the last day of hearings, Israel told the International Court of Justice that its military activities in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks were justified, and the complaint brought by South Africa claiming violations of the 1948 Genocide Convention was meritless.
"For some, 'never again' is a slogan. For Isreal, it is the highest moral obligation," Israel’s co-agent Tal Becker said in his opening remarks at The Hague-based court.
When South Africa filed the complaint in December 2023, it asked judges to issue emergency measures to protect the Palestinian people while the underlying claims were adjudicated. During arguments on Thursday, Pretoria asked the court to order Israel to stop military operations and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The court can issue any of the nine measures requested but could also modify or substitute its own.
Israel’s legal team said the country’s military is doing everything it can to minimize civilian deaths as it tries to root out Hamas. The militant organization killed more than 1,000 people and kidnapped 200 others when fighters launched a cross-border attack last year.
"Not every conflict is genocidal," Israel’s lead counsel Malcolm Shaw told the 17-judge panel. The legal threshold for genocide is high and requires a “special intent” to destroy an entire group of people.
Shaw also argued that South Africa had failed to prove the two countries had a dispute, as required by the treaty. Any party can initiate a case at the court against another signatory under the convention, but Shaw said the South Africans hadn’t tried hard enough to resolve the disagreement before launching the proceedings.
The West African country of Gambia launched a complaint against Myanmar in 2020 claiming the government was committing genocide against the Rohingya. Those proceedings are still ongoing.
Israel started the proceedings by showing photos and videos of the October 2023 attacks and the remaining hostages. At a press conference on Thursday, a group of family members of hostages spoke about their missing loved ones.
Michael Levy, whose sister-in-law was killed at the NOVA music festival and whose brother is currently being held hostage, asked the international community to do everything it can to bring him home. “Why do we protect these war crimes here?” he asked.
Legally, however, the horrific attacks would not permit genocide, if the court determines that is what's happening in Gaza. “Self-defense cannot amount to or justify genocide,” international law expert Juliette McIntyre told Courthouse News.
The ensuing military response has killed more than 23,000 people and displaced nearly two million others, according to evidence presented by South Africa.
In November, South Africa also filed a referral to another court in The Hague, the International Criminal Court, claiming Israel was committing war crimes in Gaza. The court has already opened an investigation into the Palestinian territories.
In 2015 Palestine signed onto the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the court in 2002, and asked the prosecutor to open an investigation into Israeli military action during the 2014 Gaza War, and into settlement construction in both the West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem.
Judges at the world’s only permanent court for atrocity crimes ruled in 2021 that they have jurisdiction in the Palestinian territories, including in areas occupied by Israel during the 1967 Mideast War.
The International Court of Justice is likely to rule on the request for provisional measures in the coming weeks.
Follow @mollyquell
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
-
Europeans still live longer than Americans May 3, 2024