South Africa’s complaint against Israel

The ICJ (International Court of Justice), based in The Hague in the Netherlands, has come under fire for its politically-motivated rulings on the war in Ukraine. Is it an instrument at the service of the collective West, or is it really an independent Court of Justice? The fact that it was an African country, and not the least, South Africa, which itself suffered colonization and apartheid with their attendant atrocities, that filed a complaint against Israel on December 29, 2023, is obviously not insignificant.

Any abnormal delay, any act of bad justice will show once again the double standards of the West according to its rules and could be fatal to the institution which will have demonstrated, then, its nuisance with the whole of the countries of the South and even more, with the face of the world.

Is it any wonder that our mainstream press is deafeningly silent on the subject?

Public hearings on January 11 and 12.

Point 4 of the introduction to the complaint (translation)

 » The facts relied upon by South Africa in the present application and which will be further developed in the present proceedings establish that — in a context of apartheid, expulsion, ethnic cleansing, annexation, occupation, discrimination and continued denial of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination; Israel, since October 7, 2023 in particular, has failed to prevent genocide and has failed to prevent the continuation of direct and public incitement to genocide. Worse still, Israel has embarked on a course of genocidal acts, and risks committing further such acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza. These acts include killing them, causing them serious mental and physical harm, and deliberately inflicting living conditions on them with the aim of bringing about their physical destruction as a group. Repeated statements by representatives of the Israeli state, including at the highest levels — the Israeli President, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense — express genocidal intent. This intention must also be rightly inferred from the nature and conduct of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, particularly in view of the failure to provide or guarantee essential food, water, medicine, fuel, shelter and other humanitarian aid to the besieged and blockaded Palestinian people, bringing them to the brink of starvation. This is also clear from the nature, scope and scale of Israel’s military attacks on Gaza, which involve more than 11 weeks of sustained bombardment of one of the world’s most densely populated areas, forcing the evacuation from their homes of 1.9 million people, or 85% of Gaza’s population, and herding them into ever smaller areas, without adequate shelter, in which they continue to be attacked, killed and injured. Israel has now killed over 21,110 Palestinians by name, including over 7,729 children, and over 7,780 others are missing, presumed dead under the rubble. Israel wounded more than 55,243 other Palestinians, causing them severe physical and mental damage. Israel has also ravaged vast areas of Gaza, including entire neighborhoods, and damaged or destroyed over 355,000 Palestinian homes, as well as vast tracts of agricultural land, bakeries, schools, universities, businesses, places of worship, cemeteries, cultural and archaeological sites, municipal and court buildings and essential infrastructure, including water, sanitation and electricity networks, while continuing a relentless attack on the Palestinian medical and health system. Israel has reduced and continues to reduce Gaza to rubble, killing, injuring and destroying its population, and creating living conditions conducive to their physical destruction as a group.  »

Christophe de Brouwer

Honorary full professor and former chair of the School of Public Health at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. (January 9, 2024)