The United Nations International Court of Justice has ordered precautionary measures against Israel to prevent “a genocide” in the Gaza Strip. The Hague has issued binding measures that are not mandatory for Israel, but that put pressure on the Netanyahu Government and recognize South Africa’s complaint by determining that some acts and words of Israeli leaders could support the “genocidal intention” of the State on Loop.

The court has avoided taking definitive measures on the actions of the Israeli army in Gaza, although it has called for compliance with several precautionary measures that Israel must put into practice within a month, when it will have to report back to the Court through a detailed report on the measures. implemented to prevent genocide in the Strip.

“The Court considers that cannot dismiss the case, as requested by Israel,” they have indicated from the United Nations International Court of Justice, emphasizing that all parties have to comply with the provisions of the convention. “The Court remembers that adopting precautionary measures, under article 41, aims to preserve the rights of the parties to the case. Therefore, it will be able to exercise its power as long as the party requesting these measures makes them plausible, and this Court can only say that the rights claimed by South Africa are plausible,” he stated.

The precautionary measures have been voted against by Israeli and Ugandan judgesalthough they have had the support of the majority of the judges that make up the TIJ.

The UN’s reasons for supporting South Africa’s complaint

The Court has recalled the definition of genocide set forth in article 2 of the convention, which states that it consists of “killing members of a racial, ethnic, or religious group or infringe negative living conditions.” Furthermore, he insisted that “in order for this crime to be considered, it is required that a part of the group has been destroyed.”

Something, he highlighted, that is true in the Gaza Strip: “The Palestinians seem to constitute an ethnic, racial or religious group, which is why the Court determines that the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, of 2 million people, They represent a substantial part of that group. The Court highlights that the military operation that Israel is carrying out has resulted in a large number of deaths and injuries and extensive damage to civilian infrastructure,” recalled The Hague, which has mentioned that more than 25,000 Palestinians have died and more than 3,000 homes have been damaged.”

To support the ruling, the Court has also used reports from international organizations that have already mentioned that “Gaza has become a place of death and despair in which families sleep on the streets and medical facilities are destroyed”, as well as WHO studies on the health status of the Gaza Strip and the statement issued by the UMRWA on the continuing threat from civilians.

The ICJ has also taken into its resolution the words of some Israeli leaders who have called for a “siege” or have used qualifiers as “human animals” to the Palestinians.

A series of indications and acts that the Hague Court determines “sufficient to conclude that the rights of Palestinians in Gaza must be protected from genocideand that South Africa has the right to seek Israel’s compliance with its obligations.”

“We consider that by their very nature at least some of the precautionary measures requested by South Africa have the objective of preserving the plausible rights of the Palestinians in Gaza,” they have indicated.

Furthermore, the Court has determined that there is a risk necessary to approve precautionary measures that these rights will be violated before its own decision, although it has indicated that “does not have definitive capacity to adopt measures on the facts” right now, and you have to listen to both sides.

Precautionary measures

The Court of The Hague has thus issued six precautionary measures that the State of Israel will have to implement within a month, when it will report again to the International Court of Justice on the measures applied so far through a report that It will also be sent to the State of South Africa. These measures are:

  • The State of Israel shall, in accordance with its obligations, implement all measures within its power to avoid any act that involves killing group memberscause bodily or mental harm to members of the group and infringe on the group ways of life that can destroy their physical condition.
  • The State of Israel must immediately ensure that its army does not commit any act described in the article describing the genocide
  • The State of Israel must maintain all measures to avoid committing genocide in the Gaza Strip
  • The State of Israel must adopt immediate and effective measures to ensure sufficient humanitarian services and urgent in the Gaza Strip
  • The State of Israel must adopt effective measures to prevent the destruction of evidence on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide about Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
  • The State of Israel must submit a report on all measures taken within one month to fulfill their obligations

Palestine celebrates the decision and Israel considers it “outrageous”

The Foreign Minister of the Palestinian National Authority, Riyad al Maliki, welcomed the ICJ ruling in a video statement in which he stated that “Palestine welcomes the provisional measures ordered by the ICJ against Israel today. The judges analyzed the facts and the law and ruled in favor of humanity and international law. For its part, the South African Government has described the ruling as “a decisive victory for the international rule of law” and has assured that it marks “an important milestone in the search for justice for the Palestinian people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has assured that South Africa’s accusation “is not only false, It is outrageous“, although he welcomed that the court has not ordered the immediate cessation of hostilities. “Like every country, Israel has the basic right to self-defense. “The court in The Hague rightly rejected the scandalous demand to deprive us of this right,” Netanyahu insisted.

Before the ruling, the Israeli Government had already defended before the International Court of Justice that the accusations of committing genocide against the Palestinian population during the war against Hamas in Gaza are a “gross distortion” of reality and an implicit effort to deprive the country of its “right to self-defense. They thus affirmed that ultimately, they only serve to “cheaper” the crime of genocide, the “crime of all crimes.”

This same Thursday, the Israeli Government thus showed its confidence that The Hague would reject South Africa’s ‘spurious and misleading’ accusations and he stated that he was not going to change his operations in Gaza.