jordan pulse -
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will hold its first public hearing on Thursday in a South African lawsuit seeking to prosecute Israel for genocide in its war on the besieged Gaza Strip, in a lawsuit backed by Jordan and the Palestinian government.
On December 29, South Africa submitted a request to the International Court of Justice to initiate proceedings against Israel, asserting that “Israel’s acts and omissions are of the character of genocide because they are accompanied by the specific intention required to destroy the Palestinians of Gaza as part of the broader national, racial and ethnic group, the Palestinians,” the International Court of Justice said in a statement.
The Hague-based international tribunal said it would hold public hearings in South Africa’s lawsuit against Israel over its war on the Gaza Strip on Jan. 11-12.
South Africa asked the court to issue an urgent order declaring Israel to be in breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Established after World War II, the International Court of Justice is the highest judicial body of the United Nations that adjudicates disputes between States.
The court usually needs a week or two to issue a decision in emergency proceedings after hearings, and although the court has legally binding decisions, it has little authority to put them into effect.
Israel rejected the lawsuit, saying it had no legal basis, with the Foreign Ministry saying in a statement: “South Africa is cooperating with a terrorist group that calls for the destruction of Israel ... ”The people of Gaza are not the enemy of Israel, which is making efforts to minimize harm to civilians.”
But it confirmed that it would appear in court to “challenge the accusations,” with Israeli government spokesman Elon Levy saying in an online press conference, “Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice in The Hague to refute the accusation… directed by South Africa.”
“We assure South African leaders that history will judge you, and you will be judged without mercy,” Levy said.
Since the seventh of last October, the Israeli occupation army has waged a devastating war on the besieged Gaza Strip, which has led to the death of more than 22,000 martyrs and 57,000 wounded, more than 70% of whom are women and children, according to data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Strip.
The ministry pointed out that 7,000 people are missing under the rubble, and there is difficulty in obtaining accurate figures about them, due to the ongoing attacks and insufficient rescue missions.
-Supporting legal files prepared by Jordan –
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi said during a meeting in the House of Representatives that Jordan supports South Africa’s lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice for genocide and violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.
He added that the ministry Is working on preparing the necessary legal file to follow up on this and is coordinating with Arab and Islamic countries.
Safadi stressed that Jordan was among the first to call at the United Nations for Israel and Israeli officials to be held accountable for the war crimes they committed in Gaza.
On South Africa’s lawsuit, the foreign minister said: “We certainly support this and our legal experts are preparing the necessary files to deal with this file.”
He added that there are 43 Arab and Islamic countries that are members of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide of 1948, and that one of the decisions of the joint Arab-Islamic summit was to assign the secretariats general of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to prepare legal files, and we are now working to develop a joint effort to follow up on this file.
“We are dealing with an unprecedented situation in which a UN member state feels that it is above international law and commits crimes in defiance of international law and the will of the international community,” Safadi said, “and Jordan is doing everything it can, “but I say it clearly and frankly that Jordan alone is not expected to be able to confront this aggression.”
-Palestinian Welcome, American Rejection-
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry welcomed South Africa’s move, saying that Israel is an illegal occupying power and the statements and practices of its officials and its destructive war against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip are genocide.
The ministry stated that the likening of the Palestinian people to “human animals and children of darkness” reflects the intentions of the occupation forces to commit this crime, in addition to the actual cutting off of water, food and electricity, preventing the entry of medicine and fuel, targeting homes, hospitals and shelters, and destroying power plants and water tanks.
The Palestinian ministry called on the International Court of Justice to urgently respond to South Africa’s request for interim measures in order to prevent the commission of genocide.
The White House said that South Africa’s lawsuit before the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing “genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip was “baseless” and “yielding military consequences.”
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said: “This claim is baseless, counterproductive, and not based on any facts.”
Asking about the matter during his daily news briefing, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said: “We don’t think this is a feasible measure at the moment.” Miller rejected South Africa’s accusations against Israel, which considers the United States its world’s number one ally and biggest military backer.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz explained in a report that the security establishment and the Public Prosecution in Israel fear that the International Court of Justice will attribute to Israel crimes of genocide in Gaza.
It also said, one of the top legal experts handling the case had warned military commanders of the danger of an order from the International Court of Justice to halt the war.
-Genocide Convention prevention –
The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Article 2) defines genocide as "any of the following acts, committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. including: killing members of the group; inflicting serious bodily or spiritual harm on members of the group; deliberately subjecting the group to living conditions intended to destroy it physically in whole or in part; imposing measures aimed at preventing children from having children within the group; and forcibly transferring children from the group to another group.”
The Convention affirms that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or war, is a crime under international law, and the parties undertake to prevent and punish it.
The primary responsibility for preventing and stopping genocide lies with the State in which the crime is committed.
In article III of the Convention, the following acts are punishable: genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempted commission of genocide and complicity in genocide.
Article IV stipulates that “the perpetrators of genocide or any of the other acts mentioned in Article III, whether constitutional judges, public officials or individuals, shall be punished”, while “the Contracting Parties undertake to take, each in accordance with its Constitution, the necessary legislative measures to ensure the enforcement of the provisions of this Convention, in particular the provision of effective criminal penalties for the perpetrators of genocide or any of the other acts mentioned in Article III”, according to Article V of the Convention.
Persons accused of genocide or any of the other acts mentioned in Article III shall be tried before a competent court of the State in whose territory the act was committed, or before an international criminal court having jurisdiction over whose jurisdiction has been recognized by the Contracting Parties”, in accordance with Article VI.
According to the United Nations, the Genocide Convention remains of great importance, as the Convention first codified the crime of genocide in international law.
Its preamble recognizes that genocide has inflicted heavy losses on humanity in all periods of history and that international cooperation is required to free humanity from this heinous scourge.
To date, 153 States have ratified the Convention, and achieving full universal ratification of the Convention — as well as ensuring its full implementation — remains essential for effective progress in the prevention of the crime of genocide.
The Genocide Convention contains the obligation not only to implement the punishment for genocide, but also to prevent it decisively.