This year started with a historic case: for the first time in over 70 years, Israel had to defend its crimes in an international court.
There is so much to cover when we talk about the case that South Africa filed against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Essentially, it accused Israel of committing genocide and hence failing to uphold its duties as a signatory of the Genocide Convention.
As importantly, this was the first time the Israeli government had to stand in an international court and respond to any legal team regarding its conduct. In this specific case, that conduct is committing mass atrocities in Gaza on a daily basis.
If the court rules that there is a base to investigate this further or not, this case has already shown us a lot. A lot of bravery and hope, but also hypocrisy and colonial violence — and not only in Palestine.
My episode is about those learnings.
I start by quickly presenting some of the differences between the ICJ and the ICC (please see a nice summary below) by AlJazeera:
Then, I go over the main accusations that the South African team and its international team of lawyers presented to the court.
I talk about the broader meaning and significance of this court case and how it was accepted by other states: from expressing support to violently attacking Yemen, the one country that has put a lot of effort into actually stopping this genocide.
As promised, I’m sharing a video on Yemen by Lowkey:
I talk a lot about colonialism, imperialism, and militarism, and how the violence that we find at the intersection of these areas is both what we’re seeing in the Middle East, perpetrated by Israel and its Western allies, and what the Global South has known for centuries.
Yet I end on a hopeful note.
Where does that hope come from?
Spoiler alert: more than from the court case itself.
Stay strong, check on others, and keep your heart open.
❤️💔❤️
Justina
PS. For further analyses, please watch an interview with Norman Finkelstein and a conversation hosted by Diem25.
Find all my work on Palestine here.
Latest from the Blog
Israel’s Attacks on Rafah: No ‘Red Lines’, Only Mass Killing Supported by The West
The ones who have the power to stop it are choosing not to: with its invasion of Rafah, Israel has proven not only that it has only contempt for the International Law (something it didn’t really need to prove), but that our governments are gladly falling into the abyss of Fascism as they continue to…
What Protests on Campuses against Israel’s Genocide in Gaza Have Revealed
Fascism at home protecting a Fascist regime in Israel: this is just one of the things that have become clear as police brutality is being unleashed onto students across the US and abroad who are protesting their universities’ role in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Do You Listen to Fascists or Do You Listen to Legal Scholars?
I have never seen so much of disregard and even contempt for International Law from people who we would expect to at least pretend to care about it. That façade crumbles when people start defend Israel’s genocide in Gaza and, by doing so, so often let their Fascist views show. The question for you is:…
One thought on “South Africa’s Case Against Israel at The ICJ: What Did We Learn?”