Statement by South Africa welcoming the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice against Israel
Today marks a decisive victory for the international rule of law and a significant milestone in the search for justice for the Palestinian people. In a landmark ruling, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has determined that Israel’s actions in Gaza are plausibly genocidal and has indicated provisional measures on that basis. For the implementation of the international rule of law, the decision is a momentous one. South Africa thanks the Court for its swift ruling.
The United Nations Security Council will now be formally notified of the Court’s order pursuant to Article 41(2) of the Court’s Statute. The veto power wielded by individual states can not be permitted to thwart international justice, not least in light of the ever-worsening situation in Gaza brought about by Israel’s acts and omissions in violation of the Genocide Convention.
Third States are now on notice of the existence of a serious risk of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. They must, therefore, also act independently and immediately to prevent genocide by Israel and to ensure that they are not themselves in violation of the Genocide Convention, including by aiding or assisting in the commission of genocide. This necessarily imposes an obligation on all States to cease funding and facilitating Israel’s military actions, which are plausibly genocidal.
Above all else, the provisional measures are directly binding on Israel, which is required pursuant to the Court’s order and to the Genocide Convention itself, to stop all acts by it that are plausibly genocidal, such as those raised by South Africa in its Application and request for the indication of provisional measures. There is no credible basis for Israel to continue to claim that its military actions are in full compliance with international law, including the Genocide Convention, having regard to the Court’s ruling.
South Africa sincerely hopes that Israel will not act to frustrate the application of this Order, as it has publicly threatened to do, but that it will instead act to comply with it fully, as it is bound to do.
South Africa will continue to act within the institutions of global governance to protect the rights, including the fundamental right to life, of Palestinians in Gaza – which continue to remain at urgent risk including from Israeli military assault, starvation and disease – and to obtain the fair and equal application of international law to all, in the interest of our collective humanity. Notably, South Africa will continue to do everything within its power to preserve the existence of the Palestinian people as a group, to end all acts of apartheid and genocide against the Palestinian people and to walk with them towards the realisation of their collective right to self-determination, for, as Nelson Mandela momentously declared, “our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians”.
The indication by this Court of provisional measures pursuant to the Genocide Convention marks a significant historical step towards that goal.
For more information: Clayson Monyela (Head of Public Diplomacy) +27828845974.
Statement by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
In a seismic ruling, today the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has found that there is plausible evidence that Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip constitute genocide – the ‘crime of crimes.’ In a damning statement, the International Court has ordered Israel and its military to stop killing Palestinians, end and punish incitement to genocide, enable emergency assistance and restore basic services to the people of Gaza, and take steps to ensure that possible genocide does not continue.
Ben Jamal, PSC Director, said:
“Whilst Israel and its supporters may cling to the fact that the ICJ has not ordered an immediate suspension of all military operations, it is difficult to see how Israel can abide by the measures ordered by the court without an immediate cessation of a military campaign, which has involved the indiscriminate bombing of civilians, forced displacement of 1.7 million Palestinians and, as made clear in devastating detail by the Court, has destroyed the societal infrastructure of Gaza and created a humanitarian catastrophe.
The judgement also carries immediate implications for the UK as a signatory to the Genocide Convention. It must not aid acts which the court has found to be a plausible case of genocide. The UK government must now call for an immediate ceasefire, for Israel to abide by all of the measures imposed by the Court, and must immediately suspend all arms sales to Israel given the clear likelihood that such arms may be used to aid the commission of genocide.
Those in the UK and across the world who have marched to end a genocide and to condemn their leaders for their failure to act will be strengthened by this judgement. We must now ramp up all levers of pressure on our leaders to act, to abide by their moral and legal responsibilities, to demand that Israel ends the genocide of Gaza and lifts the siege to allow in urgent humanitarian aid. PSC calls upon all people of conscience to join our National Day of Action tomorrow calling on the UK to stop arming Israel, and to come to London on February 3rd for the next National March calling for a ceasefire now!”