UN court to rule on South Africa bid to halt Israeli operation ‘as soon as possible’

At The Hague this past week, lawyers for South Africa and Israel presented two starkly different versions of the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

On Thursday, South Africa’s application to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for urgent measures to stop Israel’s military operation in Gaza was underpinned by an accusation of genocide. 

Israel’s forceful rebuttal on Friday is rooted in the belief it has a right to self-defence against an organization — Hamas — that it, in turn, describes as genocidal.

Left to sort through six powerful hours of argument is a panel of 17 judges who are no strangers to acrimonious legal debate. 

In recent years, the court has considered and ordered provisional measures in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Myanmar’s persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority, and, most recently, in a Canada-Netherlands application against Syria to prevent acts of torture.

With the help of international law, the court must now consider whether to try helping untangle one of the world’s most polarizing conflicts in recent memory.

South Africa seeking ‘provisional measures’

At the start of the proceedings, the court’s president, Judge Joan Donoghue, reminded lawyers to stick to the narrow question at hand: Whether emergency “provisional measures” that South Africa is seeking are warranted to protect Palestinian lives in Gaza, until the court considers the bigger question of whether Israel’s actions there are genocidal in intent. 

She reminded lawyers that they should “not enter into the merits of the case beyond what is strictly necessary.”

The teams speaking for both South Africa and Israel still provided strongly worded views on the matter, using photos, audio and video recordings in an effort to bolster their diametrically opposed positions. 

South Africa’s lawyers pointed to Israeli attacks that have killed nearly 24,000 people in Gaza, to the mass displacement and shortages of food and water and medical aid, as well as comments by Israeli officials, and soldiers on the ground as “overwhelming and incontrovertible” evidence of Israel’s genocidal intent. 

“Every day there is mounting, irreparable loss of life, property, dignity and humanity for the Palestinian people,” said lawyer Adila Hassim.