The State of Israel on Friday at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands, accused South Africa of being guilty of “genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for its response to Hamas terrorism. showed the answer.
Israel believes that South Africa has distorted Israeli policy and the meaning of the word “genocide,” and that no country facing true genocidal terrorism, such as the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel, would ever commit itself. He claimed that he could not protect.
“If there was an act that could be characterized as genocide, it was committed against Israel,” general counsel Tal Becker said in his opening presentation, vowing to repeat the October 7 attack. he told the ICJ, showing footage of Hamas leaders.
Becker said South Africa's presentation goes beyond the current conflict and calls into question Israel's very existence. As such, he said, it is “almost indistinguishable from Hamas' own rejectionist rhetoric” that advocates genocide against Israel.
Becker also showed court images of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and asked if they were “unworthy of protection.” He added that “Hamas is not a party to these proceedings” and that South Africa is seeking to defend Hamas.
He criticized South Africa for insisting that Israel had no right to self-defense against Hamas, saying this amounted to an injustice. defense Of genocide.
“If the applicant's current argument is that Israel must be denied the ability to defend its own people in an armed conflict between Israel and Hamas, then the absurd upshot of South Africa's argument is this: against Israel. Under the guise of claiming “'genocide,' this court is convened to halt operations against organizations pursuing actual genocidal objectives.”
Noting that the South African government had only recently hosted a Hamas delegation, Becker said the South African government should be prohibited from continuing to use rhetoric encouraging the destruction of Israel, and said South Africa should take responsibility for its own actions. I couldn't escape it.
(Beyond the Courtroom, Times of Israel I got it.Israel followed up on that message, accusing South Africa of supporting genocide “by supporting the terrorist organization Hamas, which seeks the eradication of the state of Israel”.
He said Hamas was responsible for civilian suffering in Gaza because it had planted terrorists, weapons and tunnels among civilians, including schools and hospitals, and “actively victimized” them for military and propaganda purposes. He pointed out that there is.
Surprisingly, South Africa completely omitted that fact from its presentation, portraying all of them as civilians without telling the court how many of its casualties were terrorists who died in the fighting, and denying Palestinian casualties. He said he had provided a number of people.
He pointed out that all wars have unfortunate civilian casualties. But there is a difference between inflicting civilian casualties, legal or illegal, and actual genocide intended for the “total or partial destruction of the population,” which only Hamas wanted. there were.
In the rest of their presentation, Israeli legal representatives dismantled the rest of the South African case, which was largely based on quoting (and misquoting) Israeli officials, and the South African lawyers argued that He claimed that it showed genocidal intent.
Israeli representative Malcolm Shaw argued that “context” was needed to understand the conflict. SaidSouth Africa actually covered it up by saying that “creating random citations that do not follow government policy is misleading at best.”
Mr. Shaw also argued that South Africa improperly brought the lawsuit, avoided the obligation to show that there was an actual dispute between the parties, refused to give Israel an opportunity to respond, and instead filed the lawsuit instead. He claimed to have rushed to court.
Other Israeli lawyers It pointed out They argued that Israel's attempts to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza disproved any claims of intent to commit genocide. warned If the ICJ is unfavorable to Israel, it risks weakening itself by weakening its terms.
Joel B. Pollack is a senior editor at Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday Sunday nights from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM ET (4:00 PM to 7:00 PM PT) on Sirius XM Patriot. He published his 2021 e-book “The Zionist conspiracy (and how to join it)' has been updated and a new preface has been added. He is also the author of a recently published e-book. Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 US Presidential Election. He is the recipient of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter @joelpolak.
