French newspapers Le Monde and the Swiss "Lotan" dealt with the "genocide" complaint. South Africa is calling on them to take "precautionary measures" to stop ongoing crimes in the Palestinian territories. The court does not have the means to implement its binding decisions, and the United States, which backs Israel in its war, may veto it if the court requests sanctions from the United Nations Security Council.

The French newspapers "Le Monde" and the Swiss "Lotan" dealt with the "genocide" complaint filed by South Africa against Israel before the International Court of Justice, which will hold hearings tomorrow, Thursday and the day after tomorrow, the first provided the elements of the complaint in explanation and detail, while the second considered that what South Africa submitted may be destructive to Israel.

For Israel and the majority of Israelis, this complaint is a perversion and a sad thing, because Israel was established in the wake of the Holocaust, and they find themselves accused of genocide in Gaza.

For desperate Palestinians in Gaza, this measure is an opportunity to highlight their plight after 23,000 people were killed and 60,000 injured during three months of devastating bombardment.

Although it may take years before judges in The Hague decide on the merits, South Africa is calling on them to take "precautionary measures" to stop ongoing crimes in the Palestinian territories.But the court does not have the means to implement its binding decisions, and the United States, which backs Israel in its war, may veto it if the court requests sanctions from the United Nations Security Council.

"Unfounded"

For its part, Lotan noted that the US State Department described the complaint against Israel as "baseless" and considered it and Israel politically motivated, knowing that the court's initial measures could be of great symbolic importance.The hearings of South Africa's complaint filed on 29 December 2023 against Israel for violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide will be held before the International Court of Justice on 11 and 12 January at the Peace Palace in The Hague.

In the document it sent, South Africa urges the Court to order Israel "to immediately cease all military attacks that could constitute acts of genocide, to stop killing and causing serious psychological and physical harm to Palestinians in Gaza, and not to impose living conditions that could lead to physical destruction" of the people of Gaza.

Dehumanization

These three crimes can be legally classified as genocide if committed with the intention of eliminating Palestinians in Gaza.The 84-page document cited "dehumanized" statements made at the highest levels by the head of state, the prime minister and several ministers and senior officials in Israel.Le Monde recalled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's description of the war in front of the Knesset as "a conflict between the sons of light and the sons of darkness, between humanity and the law of the jungle" and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as saying, "We are fighting human animals and acting accordingly," adding, "We are imposing a complete blockade on Gaza. No electricity, no water, no gas, everything is closed."

The document also cites journalists, former officers and elected officials, with no authority over the conduct of the war, as well as comments by far-right religious ministers who continue to call for ethnic cleansing in Gaza.Their political camp sees the "Al-Aqsa flood" and the ongoing war as what they call a historic opportunity to achieve the "divine will" by expelling the Palestinians from part of the Holy Land.

Although their genocidal rhetoric is neither the military nor the government, "neither the judicial system nor the political authority has punished those who make such speeches, which tends to strengthen South Africa's arguments," Israeli lawyer and human rights defender Michael Sfard laments.South African lawyers are also demanding unfettered access to humanitarian aid for Gazans, as Israel eased its blockade slightly in recent weeks. 

Finally, they demand that experts from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and investigators from the International Criminal Court be granted access to Gaza.

Although judges are not bound by the measures requested by Pretoria, according to Le Monde, and can decide to reject them or issue others, and that they do not meet any deadline, this type of case is swift, as it did not take 9 days for judges in The Hague to issue an order against Russia, following a complaint filed by Ukraine at the beginning of the Russian invasion of its territory.No country has yet officially joined South Africa, but many countries have denounced the genocide, such as Algeria, Bolivia, Brazil and others, and even Ofer Kasif, a member of the Israeli parliament (Knesset), signed the complaint with 200 Israelis, although the Israeli Foreign Ministry says that "accusing Israel of genocide is baseless in fact and law, and is morally repugnant" before calling it "anti-Semitic."

Israeli concern

This time, Israel has not boycotted the court, appointing a special judge in The Hague, the highly respected former chief justice Aharon Barak, a Holocaust survivor, who will be sworn in with the opening of hearings on Thursday, and South Africa will be able to appoint a second ad litem judge.After two days of hearings and the expected decision of the judges, a more technical procedural phase could begin, during which Israel could challenge the court's jurisdiction in the case, and South Africa and Israel would then have to submit their written submissions before organizing hearings on the merits.For her part, Lotan stressed that South Africa's complaint could be devastating for Israel, and saw that Israeli President Isaac Herzog's raising of this issue - in front of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken - is evidence of growing concern among Israeli officials, especially since he has statements that Pretoria considers incitement to genocide, when he said that "the entire (Palestinian) nation is responsible" for the crimes committed by Hamas and called for "breaking its spine."

Accusing Israel of violating the treaty - which was adopted by an overwhelming majority of countries in 1948 in the wake of crimes committed by the Nazis - is not easy for Israel to accept, as it prepares to prove that Pretoria uses international law to achieve political goals, especially since South Africa was severely reprimanded by another court in The Hague in 2017 for refusing to arrest former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is accused of "genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes" in Darfur.

Source : Lotan + Le Monde +Tellerreport