‘Indeed, it is a genocide’ – SA returns to the ICJ

Alameen Templeton

South Africa will hand detailed, “forensic” proof of Israel’s genocidal guilt in Gaza to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Monday, but it will come too late for its victims.

Israel must file an answer only by July 28 next year. That should be plenty of time to “get the job done”. Additionally, oral arguments are only expected in 2026.

With a “Holocaust within a Holocaust” unfolding in northern Gaza, many are asking if there will be any witnesses for victims left by the time the court comes to an obvious decision many years from now.

Eight more months of murder?

South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told Daily Maverick the memorial contains more evidence, in “forensic detail,” to show that “this is not just a plausible case of genocide, but indeed it is genocide.”

A South African diplomatic source told Anadolu the memorial will be filed on Monday.

Once a memorial is filed, Israel will have at its disposal another eight, long months of uninterrupted murder, until July 28 next year, before it has to file a reply.

Legal advisors to South Africa’s case were busy up to the last minute preparing the 500-page document, with more evidence piling up like snow on a daily basis.

“The problem we have is that we have too much evidence,” Ambassador Vusimuzi Madonsela, South Africa’s representative to The Hague, told Al Jazeera.

Support keeps growing

Zane Dangor, Director-General of International Relations and Cooperation, said: “The legal team will always say we need more time, there’s more facts coming. But we have to say you have to stop now. You [have] got to focus on what you have.”

Several countries – Chile, the Maldives, Bolivia, Türkiye, Nicaragua, Palestine, Spain, Mexico, Libya, and Colombia -have joined the case, which began public hearings in January.

The ICJ in May fruitlessly ordered Israel to halt its attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the third time the 15-judge panel had issued preliminary orders that the Zionists roundly ignored.

After 387 days of genocide, the death toll in Gaza has passed 43 000, to 43 030, with 101 110 injured and well over 11 000 reported missing, presumed dead under the rubble. How many are missing, but not reported, only Allah knows.

Dangor believes South Africa has a “rock-solid” case, telling Al-Jazeera the “intent is clear”.

“Genocidal acts without direct intent can be regarded as crimes against humanity, but there the intent is just front and centre.

Nine months of labour

“You are seeing statements from leaders, but also ordinary Israelis saying ‘kill all Gazans, even the babies’,” Dangor added.

About 100 people have laboured on different parts of the case for the last nine months, with top government officials providing oversight. Wary of Israel’s notorious willingness to sabotage – Mossad waged a nine-year intimidation campaign against prosecutors at the International Court of Justice – teams have worked separately. The 500-page dossier is marked “Top Secret” until it is filed before the court, Al-Jazeera reports.

“We have been working flat out to put together the submission,” Madonsela noted.

An unidentified Johannesburg law firm is handling project management, with junior counsel wading through thousands of examples of “unthinkable cruelty”, focusing on drawing clear links between Israeli politicians’ many genocidal calls and genocidal action on the ground.

A ‘unique’ case

They are seeking to prove genocide is “Israel’s ultimate objective”.

Dangor says South Africa’s case is unique, in many ways:

1. It is challenging a genocide while it is unfolding. That has never happened before. The German Holocaust, the Srebrenica massacre, Rwanda – they only came to court years after the victims were buried;
2. Real-time documentation is available of many genocidal acts, capturing intent and execution with immediate clarity; and
3. It implicates a Western-backed state, which has raised hackles in many centres traditionally viewed as “protectors of human rights” and has exposed their “values” as mere sham, with Israel’s genocidal ambitions “unambiguously prominent”.

A guilty verdict could set off ripple effects far beyond Gaza, re-emphasising the standard on how international law addresses state violence. It will also force other states to reconsider their ties to Israel, especially their military ties, Head of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Melani O’Brien, said.

Dangor added: “With this level of depravity, wilful killing and immunity, where Israel says, ‘We will commit genocide and get away with it, how dare you call it a genocide’, we are duty-bound to stop it,” he said.

Boycott, divest, sanctions

“We don’t have the ability to stop it with military means or economic sanctions. We are hoping that the actions we take can lead to others having to take action. This is because the legal consequences that emerge from a finding of genocide mean that third-party states can no longer find excuses to provide arms [to Israel].”

Palestinian supporters held a protest outside Cape Town’s High Court Monday, demanding an end to the genocide.

“We are very proud that South Africa has taken up this stance. It has been joined by many other countries in this initiative,” Professor Usuf Chikte, of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, told GroundUp while standing outside court.

Megan Choritz, of South African Jews for a Free Palestine, said, “We have to boycott, divest and sanction. We have to make sure that this stops before every single Gazan is dead.”

Ashraf Mahomed, of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers, said the association supported South Africa’s decision to stand up for the truth: “We reject those who engage in antisemitism or Jew-hatred as much as we reject those who engage in Islamaphobia or Arab-hatred. Standing up for truth and against war-crimes being committed by Israel is not antisemitic. Standing on the right side of history is not antisemitic.”