Israel has said that South Africa is not telling the truth in its case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. South Africa is accusing Israel of committing genocide.
South Africa gave a big description of what could have happened differently in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, according to Israeli lawyer Tal Becker.
South Africa accuses Israel of killing many Palestinians in the fighting in Gaza.
It also wants the court to make Israel stop its military action.
The ICJ is the top court of the United Nations. The decisions of the ICJ are supposed to be followed by countries like Israel and South Africa, but they cannot be forced to follow them.
Israel is presenting its argument to the court one day after South Africa did.
On Thursday, there was fighting outside the court in The Hague, Netherlands between Palestinian and Israeli supporters. Police tried to keep them apart.
Many people with flags from Palestine gathered outside the Peace Palace, shouting for the fighting to stop. Israeli supporters put up a screen to show pictures of more than 130 hostages still in Gaza.
South Africa says Israel is breaking a promise to stop genocide. Both countries agreed to this promise in 1949.
Israel has been fighting against Hamas, the group that runs Gaza, since October 7th. This was because hundreds of Hamas fighters attacked Israel, killing around 1,300 people and taking about 240 others as hostages back to Gaza.
The health ministry in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, says that over 23,350 people, mostly women and children, have been killed by Israel in the war.
In the beginning of the trial, Tal Becker said that even though it’s sad that civilians are suffering, Hamas is trying to hurt both Israelis and Palestinians, while Israel is trying to protect them.
He said that South Africa has given the court a very wrong and misleading picture of the facts and the law. Their whole case relies on a purposely selected, taken out of context, and manipulative description of the current fighting.
On Thursday, 17 judges in the court listened to lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi from South Africa. He said Israel’s intentions to commit genocide were clear from the way they were conducting their military attacks.
Israel had a plan to “destroy” Gaza, he said, which “has been nurtured at the highest level of state”. Israel planned to “destroy” Gaza, and he said it was a plan made by the state’s highest leaders.
Adila Hassim, who is from South Africa, told the court that the Palestinian people are suffering every day. They are losing their lives, homes, dignity, and humanity.
“Only a court order can make the suffering stop. ”
South Africa said that Israel’s actions are meant to destroy a large part of the Palestinian people.
On Thursday, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, criticized South Africa for not speaking out against the terrible things happening in Syria and Yemen that are being done by people who work with Hamas. He said South Africa is being hypocritical.
“Today everything was upside-down. ” Israel is being accused of killing lots of people, but they say they are fighting against killing lots of people.
A representative for UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that Mr. Sunak thinks that South Africa’s case is completely unfair and incorrect.
“The UK government supports Israel’s right to defend itself according to international law,” he said.
The ICJ’s decision on the genocide accusation will just be a point of view, but a lot of people are paying close attention to it.
It may take a long time for a decision to be made, but the court may decide quickly on whether Israel should stop its military actions in response to South Africa’s request.
Tag: International Court of Justice
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Israel claims charge of genocide is untrue
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Israeli officials back destruction of Gaza – Court told
Israel’s top leaders want to “destroy” Gaza, according to the highest level of government, as the UN’s top court has been told.
South African lawyers said that Israel is killing many people and they are taking their case to the International Court of Justice.
South Africa wants the court to tell Israel to stop its fighting in Gaza.
Israel will present its defence on Friday and has strongly denied the accusations as being without evidence.
The court will only give its opinion on the genocide allegation and many people are paying attention to it.
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, a lawyer in South Africa, said that Israel’s intention to commit genocide is clear from the way they are conducting their military attack.
“He said that the plan to destroy Gaza has been supported by the top leaders of the country. ”
Adila Hassim from South Africa said that every day the Palestinian people are facing a lot of loss, including lives, homes, respect, and their basic rights.
“Only a decision from this court can make the suffering stop. ”
South Africa said that Israel’s actions were meant to destroy many Palestinian people.
Israel will show how it defends itself on Friday. It has said before that it is justified in attacking the Gaza Strip because it is responding to Hamas’s deadly attacks on 7 October.
On Thursday, South Africa’s Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said that no attack can justify breaking the Genocide Convention.
Israel has agreed to the Genocide Convention of 1948. This agreement means they promise to stop genocide and take action to prevent it from happening.
On Thursday, a spokesperson for Israel’s foreign ministry, Lior Haiat, said that South Africa’s case has completely twisted the truth about what’s happening in Gaza. He said that Hamas attackers have entered Israel and killed, executed, massacred, raped, and kidnapped Israeli citizens.
He said Israel will keep its people safe under the rules of the world, while telling the difference between Hamas fighters and regular people.
The ICJ is the top court of the United Nations, located in The Hague in the Netherlands. The decisions of the ICJ are supposed to be followed by countries like Israel and South Africa, but they cannot be forced to follow them.
In 2022, the court told Russia to stop fighting in Ukraine right away, but they didn’t listen.
According to the law, genocide means doing something on purpose to destroy a group of people because of their nationality, race, or religion.
There were fights outside the Peace Palace, where the ICJ is, as police tried to separate Palestinian and Israeli supporters.
Many people holding Palestinian flags came to the ICJ and asked for a stop to the fighting. Israeli supporters put up a big TV to show pictures of the people still being kept captive in Gaza.
The police put red and white tape outside the ICJ to try to make the chaotic scenes outside more organized.
Inside the court, the Israeli delegation is listening to South Africa’s lawyers accuse the country’s forces of committing genocide in Gaza, which is very different from the formal atmosphere in the court.
Israel’s group will talk about their right to protect themselves under the law. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel does not plan to kick out the people of Gaza or take over the land forever.
The ICJ can’t punish people for genocide, like the ICC can, but its decisions are important to the UN and other global groups.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday that South Africa is taking action against the killing of people in Gaza by going to the ICJ.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the accusations were terrible and ridiculous.
“We will go to the International Court of Justice and proudly present our case for using self-defense under humanitarian law,” he said.
He said that the Israeli army is doing their best in difficult situations to avoid any unintended harm to civilians.
The ICJ may make a quick decision on whether Israel should stop its military campaign in South Africa’s request. But it could take a long time for a final decision on whether Israel is committing genocide.
South Africa strongly disagrees with Israel’s military operation in Gaza, and its ruling African National Congress has always supported the Palestinian cause.
It relates its fight against apartheid to the struggle of racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa, which ended with the first democratic elections in 1994.
In Gaza, over 23,350 people, mostly women and children, have been killed since the war started after Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7th. In those attacks, about 1,300 people were killed, mostly innocent people, and about 240 others were taken as hostages. -
Essequibo: Venezuelans vote to seize oil sector controlled by Guyana
Venezuelans have voted in big numbers to say they want a piece of land with a lot of oil that Guyana has been in charge of for a long time.
Officials say that over 95% of people agreed to create a new state in Essequibo.
Caracas says the area has belonged to Venezuela since it became independent from Spain 200 years ago, but Guyana says it was given to British Guiana in the late 19th Century.
The argument started again in 2015 because a big oil find was made in the ocean.
President Nicolás Maduro said the referendum went really well and that most people in Venezuela voted “Yes”.
Essequibo is a big area in Guyana, it is 159,500 sq km and has around a sixth of the country’s population.
The two neighbors have been arguing for a long time about the status of the region.
In 1899, an international court gave the land to Britain, which was ruling Guyana at the time. The governments of Venezuela have said that they think the decision was not fair.
In 1966, Guyana became independent. Britain and Venezuela agreed to create a group to talk about the dispute over the land. But after sixty years, they still haven’t found a solution.
The vote is happening because in 2015, ExxonMobil found oil in the waters near Essequibo.
In 2018, Guyana filed a case at the International Court of Justice to decide if a decision made in 1899 about the territory is still valid. Guyana wants to show that the territory belongs to them. The ICJ has not made a decision yet.
Venezuela doesn’t agree that the ICJ can make decisions about this problem, but they have been going to the court’s meetings.
In September this year, tensions went up when Guyana had an auction. Oil companies bid to explore for oil in Essequibo waters.
The referendum asked people if they agreed with Venezuela’s claim over Essequibo and if they supported the government’s decision to not accept the ICJ’s authority.
They were also asked if they agreed to “strongly fight against in a legal way” Guyana’s use of the waters near the land and if they supported Essequibo being part of Venezuela’s map.
The president of the country’s election authority said that more than 95% of voters agreed with all the questions.
Guyana is upset about the vote and thinks it is trying to take over their land. The ICJ told Venezuela not to do anything that would change the way things are in the Essequibo.
Critics have also criticized the poll as an effort by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to stir up strong feelings of patriotism before the 2024 election.
We don’t know yet what the Venezuelan government will do after the referendum, but if they try to take the land by force, other countries will strongly oppose it.
One important thing is that the US put sanctions on Venezuela’s oil exports again, after starting to lessen them in October. -
Ukraine war: Russia requests UN court to dismiss lawsuit against it
Russia has asked the International Court of Justice to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Ukraine.
Kyiv is saying that Moscow is wrongly using a law about genocide as an excuse for their invasion.
Russia says it got involved in Ukraine to stop a mass killing of Russians in the eastern part of the country.
The court hearing in The Hague won’t decide if Russia’s invasion was legal. Instead, it will decide if the International Court can look into Ukraine’s complaints.
Ukraine claims that there was no chance of mass murder happening in the eastern part of the country, where they have been battling against Russian-supported groups since 2014.
This means that the treaty against genocide does not allow for any kind of invasion to stop a claimed genocide, no matter what.
Russia believes that Ukraine’s case is very flawed and claims that Ukraine actually wants a decision on whether Russia’s military actions were right or wrong.
Ukraine filed the case a few days after Russia invaded on February 24th last year.
In the middle of March, the highest court of the United Nations called on Russia to stop their military actions in Ukraine. However, Russia refused to follow this request, saying that the court did not have the power to make that decision and that Ukraine’s request was not valid.
In court on Monday, Russia’s lawyer, Gennady Kuzmin, said that because Ukraine claimed there was no genocide, there could not have been a violation of the United Nations Genocide Convention.
“He said that just that fact should be sufficient to dismiss the case. ”
In the next few days, the court will listen to the opinions of 32 other countries. They all agree with Ukraine that the court has the authority to deal with the case.
The meetings will probably continue until September 27th.
The 1948 UN Genocide Convention said that genocide is when someone intentionally tries to destroy a whole or part of a group of people because they are from a certain country, ethnicity, race, or religion.
Russian officials keep blaming Ukraine for committing genocide.
In 2017, Ukraine accused Russia of taking Crimea without permission and secretly supporting rebels who want to separate from Ukraine.
That action is still happening. It is based on United Nations conventions against terrorism and discrimination.