Israel’s pathetic excuses over genocide charges at ICJ

Empowering Weak & Oppressed

Crescent International

Rajab 01, 1445 2024-01-13

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

On Friday January 12, lawyers representing Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague tried to deflect charges of genocide by resorting to outright lies and fabrications.

Israeli lawyers alleged that Hamas was responsible for the more than 23,000 Palestinian civilian deaths!

They denied bombing hospitals even though few of the 66 hospitals in Gaza are functional anymore.

They even trotted out the lie that Hamas had built tunnels under hospitals, an allegation that has been disproved repeatedly.

Israel has not been able to present any evidence of “tunnels” under hospitals despite raiding and occupying most of them.

And they repeated the canard that the crisis started because of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel as if prior to that there was peace and tranquility.

The zionists also claimed “right of self-defence”.

This was demolished by Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In an address to the Australian Press Club on November 14, the international human rights lawyer said, “The right to self-defence can be invoked when the state is threatened by another state, which is not the case,” in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

A day earlier (January 11), the South African team had meticulously outlined the case of genocide against Israel.

South Africa brought the charge of genocide against Israel at the ICJ, supported by a large number of countries, mostly from the global south.

Listening to the presentation, the South African team marshalled an array of facts and statements from Israeli officials—military and civilians—to build its case.

South Africa’s lawyers also presented evidence of intent of genocide on the part of Israeli officials that is impossible to refute unless one believes the earth is flat.

Let us consider some of the evidence against Israeli officials.

1: At a press conference on October 13, 2023, Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog said, “It is an entire nation [Palestinians in Gaza] out there that is responsible,” the HuffPost reported.

2: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared the Palestinians to Amalek, who the Bible say were killed by the Hebrew tribe wiping out their men, women and children. Netanyahu did not mince words clearly spelling what Israel plans to do to the Palestinians. His army of murderous thugs have gone about doing precisely that.

3: Israel’s “defense” minister has said that we will starve them and deny water and medicine for the 2.3 million Palestinians with actual execution. “We will eliminate everything… Gaza won’t return to what it was before,” he announced in October.

4: Israel has bombed hospitals leaving only a few that are barely able to function. They lack essential medicines, particularly anaesthesia, forcing doctors to amputate children’s limbs without it.

5: UNICEF has reported that more than 1,000 Palestinian children have had their limbs amputated without anaesthesia since October 7.

6: Israeli genocide has resulted in the slaughter of more than 10,000 children, according to the charity, Save the Children.

In presenting its case against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, South African lawyer Adila Hassim told judges at The Hague that “genocides are never declared in advance, but this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly a pattern of conduct and related intention that justifies as a plausible claim of genocidal acts.”

“Israel deployed 6,000 bombs per week… No one is spared. Not even newborns. UN chiefs have described it as a graveyard for children,” she said.

“Nothing will stop the suffering except an order from this court.”

Whether the court will muster the courage to issue such an order is difficult to say, despite incontrovertible evidence of Israeli genocide.

The 15-member bench comprises judges from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and 10 from other countries.

Even if the court were to issue such an order, it is highly unlikely that Israel would comply.

The outlaw regime and illegitimate entity has never cared for any laws or international conventions.

The only solution to this cancer is to excise it completely.