The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has heard claims that genocide is being practised against the people of Palestine by the Israel government and army – a claim that Israel denies and describes as baseless.
Today, Irish barrister Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, speaking as part of South Africa’s legal team, told the court that UNICEF described the bombing of Gaza as a “war on children” which has claimed more than 23,000 lives.
Ms Ní Ghralaigh said the international community had continued to fail the Palestinian people, and that “towns, villages and refugee camps were being wiped from the map.”
“The first genocide in history where victims are broadcasting their destruction in real time in the hopes that the world might do something. The world should be absolutely ashamed,” she said.
"The first genocide in history where its victims are broadcasting their own destruction in real time in the desperate, so far vain hope that the world might do something."
Blinne Ni Ghralaigh at the ICJ in the Hague pic.twitter.com/WGU1e8M23y
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) January 11, 2024
South Africa accused Israel of subjecting Palestinians to genocidal acts and demanded an emergency suspension of Israel’s military campaign in the Palestinian enclave.
Irish lawyer Blinne Ni Ghralaigh who is supporting South Africa's legal team at the ICJ, says the number of orphans caused by ‘Israel’s genocidal assault on the Palestinian population in Gaza’ has led to the need for a new acronym: WCNSF – wounded child, no surviving family. pic.twitter.com/i63iXKMaIN
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) January 11, 2024
“South Africa contends that Israel has transgressed Article Two of the (Genocide) convention, committing acts that fall within the definition of genocide,” Adila Hassim, advocate of South Africa’s high court, told the ICJ.
However, Israel – which can respond to the claims at the ICJ tomorrow – has said South Africa’s case is baseless.
Its government spokesperson Eylon Levy compared the lawsuit to a centuries-old anti-semitic conspiracy theory falsely accusing Jews of killing babies for rituals.
“The State of Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice to dispel South Africa’s absurd blood libel, as Pretoria gives political and legal cover to the Hamas rapist regime” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week and rejected South Africa’s charge and said the “defensive war” would continue.
“We will continue our defensive war, the justice and morality of which is without peer,” he told a cabinet meeting, the Times of Israel reported.
“No, South Africa, it is not we who have come to perpetrate genocide, it is Hamas,” Netanyahu said. “It would murder all of us if it could. In contrast, the IDF is acting as morally as possible.”
The ICJ’s decisions cannot be appealed, but observers have pointed out that the court has no way to enforce them.