He Israeli government has defended before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the accusations of commission of genocide against the Palestinian population during the war against Hamas in Gaza that South Africa has raised are a “gross distortion“from reality and an implicit effort to deprive the country of its”right to self-defense“and, ultimately, they only serve to “cheaper” the crime of genocide, the “crime of all crimes.”

This Friday’s hearing began with an initial speech by the legal advisor of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Tal Beckerin which there has fully responsible to Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian militias for the current situation. “If acts of genocide have occurred, they have been perpetrated against Israel,” Becker declared before defending that Israel has always acted in accordance with the law “despite the absolute disregard for international law exhibited by Hamas”, an organization that is solely responsible for the “atrocious suffering” of Palestinian and Israeli civilians.

Likewise, Becker has interpreted the South Africa complaint as an expression of “rejection of the South African Government to the capacity for self-defense“.” “The absurd consequence of this is that the ICJ is trying to stop Israel in its efforts to defend civilians against an organization that pursues genocidal objectives,” he added. The Israeli legal advisor then proceeded to denounce Hamas for its “aberrant method of war” for which “it has systematically and illegally inserted”, as the Israeli Government has stated on numerous occasions, “in schools, mosques and hospitals”.

Israeli advisor: The reason for the campaign in Gaza is “to protect the Israeli people”

In summary, the Israeli advisor has argued that South Africa’s accusation lacks the fundamental basis that characterizes the crime of genocide, that is, “the intention to destroy a people in part or in whole“, and that the fundamental reason for the campaign in Gaza is to “protect”, in fact, to “the Israeli people from a ruthless enemy.” Lawyer Malcolm Shaw, also part of the Israeli legal representation, has expressed himself in the same way, who has argued that there is no evidence that warrants an accusation of genocide, a crime “unique in its malice, which stands out as the zenith of evil, the “crime of all crimes, definitive in its evil”

For this reason Shaw, an expert in International Law from the University of Leicester (United Kingdom), has appealed to the unique and exceptional characteristic of this crime to assess what is happening in Gaza in its fair measure because “if the accusations of genocide become in common currency, the essence of this crime would end up being lost“Shaw then proceeded to downplay the statements by Israeli politicians that South African lawyers reproduced the day before on the grounds that they could constitute incitement to genocide. The lawyer asserted in this sense that South Africa had selected these comments in a manner “completely partisan” and disregarded the numerous statements in which senior Israeli officials called for compliance with international legality.

Along the same lines, the Israeli legal advisor Gilad Noam about a South African accusation that only attempts to “pervert the meaning of the term itself.” “If the ICJ admits (South Africa’s) petition it will only weaken the international commitment to prevent and punish genocide, and will turn an instrument adopted to prevent horrors such as those that shook the conscience of the international community during the Holocaust, into a weapon in hands of terrorist groups that have no respect for the law,” he said.

Specifically, Noam understands that what is happening in Gaza is an “act of self-defense against an enemy that hides behind civilians” and that “if this is considered genocide, it will cause inevitable tension between the Convention in this regard and the states that defend themselves from terrorism”. After the end of the series of appearances, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has congratulated the Israeli legal team through a statement from its spokesperson, Lior Haiat, who, on behalf of the head of the portfolio, Israel Katz, has expressed his hope for that “(South Africa’s) complaint be unceremoniously dismissed.”

“We have called the legal advisor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to thank him and the members of the Israeli legal team for their impressive performance, which has destroyed all the hypocritical arguments of South Africa, a country that has shown its true face: that of a loyal representative of a terrorist organization that has inhumanely massacred babies, women and men,” Katz said.