Israeli spokesperson Eylon Levy said on Tuesday Israel was prepared to defend itself against genocide accusations filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
South Africa filed its genocide accusation against Israel with the ICJ in December. The accusation contented that Israeli military actions violated the 1948 Geneva Convention. Particularly, South Africa claimed that Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza. South Africa’s application stated that Israel’s acts are “genocidal in character” because they are “intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group, that being the part of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip.”
Levy stated on X that, “Israel condemns South Africa’s decision to play advocate for the devil.” Levy further stated that by filing the with the ICJ, South Africa made itself “criminally complicit” in enabling the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and was attempting to “cover up Hamas’ crimes against humanity.”
Levy also rebutted accusations of Israeli genocide of Palestinian civilians. He stated that Israel postponed military action for weeks to allow civilians to evacuate, sent 27 million voice and text messages warning of impending danger and dropped pamphlets directing civilians to humanitarian corridors. Additionally, Levy said that Hamas was responsible for civilian deaths by using a “human shield” strategy in which they place military targets in densely populated civilian areas.
Should the case proceed to trial, the ICJ Statute states the decision will be final and not subject to appeal. However, the ICJ has no method of enforcing a decision. Instead, it relies on the state subject to the ruling to comply or other member states to enact sanctions as pressure to comply. In 2022, the ICJ ordered Russia to halt its invasion of Ukraine with no formal action taken by Russia.
Article: Israel prepared to appear before International Court of Justice on genocide accusations