The ruling by the International Court of Justice was a legal victory for South Africa and the Palestinians, but it will not halt the slaughter.
Red Ink – by Mr. Fish
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) refused to implement the most crucial demand made by South African jurists: “the State of Israel shall immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza.” But at the same time, it delivered a devastating blow to the foundational myth of Israel. Israel, which paints itself as eternally persecuted, has been credibly accused of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Palestinians are the victims, not the perpetrators, of the “crime of crimes.” A people, once in need of protection from genocide, are now potentially committing it. The court’s ruling questions the very raison d’être of the “Jewish State” and challenges the impunity Israel has enjoyed since its founding 75 years ago.
The ICJ ordered Israel to take six provisional measures to prevent acts of genocide, measures that will be very difficult if not impossible to fulfill if Israel continues its saturation bombing of Gaza and wholesale targeting of vital infrastructure.
The court called on Israel “to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide.” It demanded Israel “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance.” It ordered Israel to protect Palestinian civilians. It called on Israel to protect the some 50,000 women giving birth in Gaza. It ordered Israel to take “effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of acts within the scope of Article II and Article III of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide against members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip.”
The court ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent the crimes which amount to genocide such as “killing, causing serious bodily and mental harm, inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”
Israel was ordered to report back in one month to explain what it had done to implement the provisional measures.
Gaza was pounded with bombs, missiles and artillery shells as the ruling was read in The Hague — at least 183 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours. Since Oct. 7, more than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed. Almost 65,000 have been wounded, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Thousands more are missing. The carnage continues. This is the cold reality.
Translated into the vernacular, the court is saying Israel must feed and provide medical care for the victims, cease public statements advocating genocide, preserve evidence of genocide and stop killing Palestinian civilians. Come back and report in a month.
It is hard to see how these provisional measures can be achieved if the carnage in Gaza continues.
“Without a ceasefire, the order doesn’t actually work,” Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s minister of international relations, stated bluntly after the ruling.
Time is not on the side of the Palestinians. Thousands of Palestinians will die within a month. Palestinians in Gaza make up 80 percent of all the people facing famine or catastrophic hunger worldwide, according to the United Nations. The entire population of Gaza by early February is projected to lack sufficient food, with half a million people suffering from starvation, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, drawing on data from U.N. agencies and NGOs. The famine is engineered by Israel.
At best, the court — while it will not rule for a few years on whether Israel is committing genocide — has given legal license to use the word “genocide” to describe what Israel is doing in Gaza. This is very significant, but it is not enough, given the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
Israel has dropped almost 30,000 bombs and shells on Gaza — eight times more bombs than the U.S. dropped on Iraq during six years of war. It has used hundreds of 2,000-pound bombs to obliterate densely populated areas, including refugee camps. These “bunker buster” bombs have a kill radius of a thousand feet. The Israeli aerial assault is unlike anything seen since Vietnam. Gaza, only 20 miles long and five miles wide, is rapidly becoming, by design, uninhabitable.
Israel will no doubt continue its assault arguing that it is not in violation of the court’s directives. In addition, the Biden administration will undoubtedly veto the resolution at the Security Council demanding Israel implement the provisional measures. The General Assembly, if the Security Council does not endorse the measures, can vote again calling for a ceasefire, but has no power to enforce it.
Defense for Children International – Palestine v. Biden was filed in November by the Center for Constitutional Rights against President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. The case challenges the U.S. government’s failure to prevent complicity in Israel’s unfolding genocide of the Palestinian people. It asks the court to order the Biden administration to cease diplomatic and military support and comply with its legal obligations under international and federal law.
The only active resistance to halt the Gaza genocide is provided by Yemen’s Red Sea blockade. Yemen, which was under siege for eight years by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, France, Britain and the U.S., experienced over 400,000 deaths from starvation, lack of health care, infectious diseases and the deliberate bombing of schools, hospitals, infrastructure, residential areas, markets, funerals and weddings. Yemenis know too well — since at least 2017 multiple U.N. agencies have described Yemen as experiencing “the largest humanitarian crisis in the world” — what the Palestinians are enduring.
Yemen’s resistance — when the history of this genocide is written — will set it apart from nearly every other nation. The rest of the world, including the Arab world, retreats into toothless rhetorical condemnations or actively supports Israel’s obliteration of Gaza and its 2.3 million inhabitants.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the U.S. has sent 230 cargo planes and 20 ships filled with artillery shells, armored vehicles and combat equipment to Israel since the attacks of Oct. 7, in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed. U.S. weapons and military equipment are being shipped to Israel — which is running out of munitions — from the British base RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, according to the U.K. investigative website Declassified UK. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that more than 40 U.S. and 20 British transport aircraft, along with seven heavy-lift helicopters, have flown into RAF Akrotiri, a 40-minute flight from Tel Aviv. Germany reportedly plans to provide 10,000 rounds of 120mm precision ammunition to Israel. If the court rules against Israel, these countries will be recognized by the world’s most important international court as accomplices to genocide.
The ruling was dismissed by Israeli leaders.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seeking to paint the decision not to demand a ceasefire as a victory for Israel, said “Like every country, Israel has an inherent right to defend itself. The vile attempt to deny Israel this fundamental right is blatant discrimination against the Jewish state, and it was justly rejected. The charge of genocide leveled against Israel is not only false, it’s outrageous, and decent people everywhere should reject it.”
“The decision of the antisemitic court in The Hague proves what was already known: This court does not seek justice, but rather the persecution of Jewish people,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said. “They were silent during the Holocaust and today they continue the hypocrisy and take it another step further.”
The ICJ was founded in 1945 following the Nazi Holocaust. The first case it heard was submitted to the court in 1947.
“Decisions that endanger the continued existence of the State of Israel must not be listened to,” Ben-Gvir added. “We must continue defeating the enemy until complete victory.”
The court, which rejected Israel’s arguments to dismiss the case, acknowledged “that the military operation being conducted by Israel following the attack of 7 October 2023 has resulted, inter alia, in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries and the destruction of homes, schools, medical facilities and other vital infrastructure, as well as displacement on a massive scale.”
The ruling included a statement made by the U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, who on Jan. 5, called Gaza “a place of death and despair.” The court document went on:
. . . Families are sleeping in the open as temperatures plummet. Areas where civilians were told to relocate for their safety have come under bombardment. Medical facilities are under relentless attack. The few hospitals that are partially functional are overwhelmed with trauma cases, critically short of all supplies, and inundated by desperate people seeking safety.
A public health disaster is unfolding. Infectious diseases are spreading in overcrowded shelters as sewers spill over. Some 180 Palestinian women are giving birth daily amidst this chaos. People are facing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded. Famine is around the corner.
For children in particular, the past 12 weeks have been traumatic: No food. No water. No school. Nothing but the terrifying sounds of war, day in and day out.
Gaza has simply become uninhabitable. Its people are witnessing daily threats to their very existence — while the world watches on.
The court acknowledged that “an unprecedented 93% of the population in Gaza is facing crisis levels of hunger, with insufficient food and high levels of malnutrition. At least 1 in 4 households are facing ‘catastrophic conditions’: experiencing an extreme lack of food and starvation and having resorted to selling off their possessions and other extreme measures to afford a simple meal. Starvation, destitution and death are evident.”
The ruling, quoting Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), continued:
Overcrowded and unsanitary UNRWA shelters have now become ‘home’ to more than 1.4 million people,” the ruling read. “They lack everything, from food to hygiene to privacy. People live in inhumane conditions, where diseases are spreading, including among children. They live through the unlivable, with the clock ticking fast towards famine.
The plight of children in Gaza is especially heartbreaking. An entire generation of children is traumatized and will take years to heal. Thousands have been killed, maimed, and orphaned. Hundreds of thousands are deprived of education. Their future is in jeopardy, with far-reaching and long-lasting consequences.
The court also referred pointedly to comments made by multiple senior Israeli government officials advocating genocide, including the president and minister of defense. Statements made by government and other officials form a crucial element of the “intent” component when seeking to establish the crime of genocide.
It quoted Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant who declared — two days after the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7 — that he ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza City with “no electricity, no food, no fuel” being permitted.
“I have released all restraints . . . You saw what we are fighting against. We are fighting human animals. This is the ISIS of Gaza,” Gallant told Israeli troops massing around Gaza the following day. “This is what we are fighting against…Gaza won’t return to what it was before. There will be no Hamas. We will eliminate everything. If it doesn’t take one day, it will take a week, it will take weeks or even months, we will reach all places.”
The ICJ quoted Israel’s President Isaac Herzog as saying, “It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved. It is absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’état. But we are at war. We are at war. We are defending our homes.” Herzog continued “We are protecting our homes. That’s the truth. And when a nation protects its home, it fights. And we will fight until we’ll break their backbone.”
Today’s decision was read out by the ICJ’s current president, Judge Joan Donoghue, an American lawyer who used to work at the U.S. State Department and the Department of the Treasury before she joined the World Court in 2010.
“In the Court’s view, the facts and circumstances mentioned above are sufficient to conclude that at least some of the rights claimed by South Africa and for which it is seeking protection are plausible,” it read. “This is the case with respect to the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts identified in Article III, and the right of South Africa to seek Israel’s compliance with the latter’s obligations under the Convention.”
It is clear from the ruling that the court is fully aware of the magnitude of Israel’s crimes. This makes the decision not to call for the immediate suspension of Israeli military activity in and against Gaza all the more distressing.
But the court did deliver a devastating blow to the mystique Israel has used since its founding to carry out its settler colonial project against the indigenous inhabitants of historic Palestine. It made the word genocide, when applied to Israel, credible.
The Chris Hedges Report is a reader-supported publication.
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Comments
17 responses to “It May be Genocide, But it Won’t Be Stopped”
Isn’treal believes no laws affect it it believes its above the law.ignoring international laws for decades and it ignored even the law requiring it to comply with to be a legal entity. Its a terrorist state thst needs removed from civilization.
I don’t understand why you keep using the name Isn’treal. Israel is all too real. Real bombs are falling on Gaza. Real IDF soldiers are executing civilians. Gaza’s children are being starved to death by the real Israeli blockede. Lebanon and Syria are regularly attacked with real Israeli weapons. This isn’t a fictional war in a make-believe movie or video game. Would that it were.
Ironically, the disease, dehydration, lack of medicine and medical care, along with all other things needed for survival in Gaza are the same that killed an estimated 250,000 Jews in German concentration camps. Jews had been placed in concentration camps after the Jewish world congress declared war on Germany in 1933. Following the Jewish declaration of war, English bankers began hiring Polish mercenaries to murder an estimated 80,000 ethnic Germans. Later, after Germany attacked Poland, England declared war on Germany; we know the rest of the story.
Wow Kudos to you. You must have been educated outside the U.S.
Yes, I lived and worked in Eastern EU for several years. Being away from the information bubble that I grew up with was sometimes a little shocking but not severe or bad. Some of the things I mention on this blog were commonplace knowledge among people there and often not acceptable to say here. People over there are much better informed than people here “generally”.
Is intentional, as an arm chair philosopher told us ‘ People who think on their own rejecting slogans and the official version of events, are very dangerous and must be persecuted for the common good’. That’s why public education at all levels is designed not to promote knowledge and understanding, but to create citizens that can be easily manipulated by the state into loyal subjects of those in power. That’s the essence of Capitalist society, to serve the interests of the ruling class by supporting ‘free elections’ to maintain the illusion of democracy. No matter who wins, we lose.
I hate to disagree with Mr. Hedges but the opposite happens to be true. Palestine will only be liberated when the Zionist menace ceases to exist, as in every war for survival there is a price to be paid. Therefore the Zionist zeal in continue the slaughter in Gaza, works to the advantage of the Palestinian resistance. Those who believe in magic formulas or peace agreements, will only prolong the agony and suffering of Palestinians that was inflicted on them since 1948 with complete Western indifference and impunity. Freedom or death must be the motto of Palestine who must keep the fight until Zionist Israel is erased from the map, is now or never.
Sad but true. I once posted a comment on a Telegram channel asking what was the Resistance’s calculus. How many more had to die? and was told “as many as it takes” and also that the channel did not appreciate my kind of pessimism. I then realised that this time round, the regular sign-off of all their bulletins is true: Victory or martyrdom. There will be a lot more pain and suffering yet on both sides, but there is now no going back…
“The entire population of Gaza by early February is projected to lack sufficient food, with half a million people suffering from starvation … The famine is engineered by Israel.”
And now the US, Australia, Canada, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland (so far) have decided to assist, by suspending UNRWA’s funding (on the basis of vague allegations lacking publicly available evidence, if any). There are more than two million people in Gaza; half a million suffering from starvation isn’t enough for the Zionists and their imperialist backers.
The same group of people that during WWII lost 6 million victims of the Nazi regime, today they are replicating the experience on another Semitic race. Apparently, they are ignoring how that hideous regime ended up at the end. No doubt the complete elimination of the Zionist entity is required, as fair retribution for the crimes committed. The fight must continue to the very end.
I don’t know that the Zionists are ignoring the fate of Nazi Germany. They have the active support of major imperialist nations, including weaponry, political backing, and now the withdrawal of funding from the main organisation distributing aid within Gaza.
Please consider the fact that there are powers opposing the Zionist entity with the means to erase Israel from the map. In fact if they continue the present course of action, thy might surely end up like their German Nazi mentors utterly destroyed.
If that’s the case so be it, not only for Palestine but for the world at large.
Indeed they might end up destroyed, like the Nazis. But I don’t think they’re ignoring that possibility; they’re hoping they can win through against the powers opposing them. And they do have some very powerful allies, with a lot of very powerful weaponry.
Virtually all the loudmouths who’ve been energetically propagating their disbelief in the spiritual concept of Karma are strangely silent at this “Instant Karma”, paradigm-changing moment in world history.
John Lennon:
Will the US prolong the killing spree and continue providing weaponry so Israel can reduce Beirut and Damascus to rubble? Will these be justified as pre-emptive self defense strikes similar to Bushes invasion of Iraq? Will Bibis’ ultimate target be a nuclear strike on Tehran which the US declares a “reasonable” response to a terrorist state, and the world looks the other way?
Since 07 October 2023, the Jews have been perpetuating the most barbaric and criminal holocaust in human history, supported and armed by the regimes of U.S.-led Collective West and their Jewish masters. More than 28,000 (possibly 30,000) Palestinians, half of them are children and babies, have been intentionally murdered by Jews. An estimated 600,000 Palestinians are on the verge of catastrophic starvation. Furthermore, Israeli soldiers are carrying out a cowardly barbaric assassinations of Palestinian inside hospitals in the Israeli-occupied “West Bank”. Jews are fucking coward and morally bankrupt.