By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
In an interim judgment, the United Nations’ International Court of Justice on Friday ruled that it has jurisdiction to consider the case brought by South Africa against Israel, and it rejected Israel’s request for the case to be dismissed.
South Africa lodged an application with the ICJ last month, arguing that Israel was violating the UN Convention on Genocide and seeking urgent measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza.
At a two-day hearing this month, South Africa asked that the ICJ grant interim injunctions, including that Israel immediately cease its military operations in Gaza.
South Africa and Israel are both parties to the genocide convention, meaning they are obliged not to commit genocide and to prevent and punish it.
The court’s president Joan Donoghue said Friday in the court at The Hague, Netherlands, that, based on its initial assessment of Israel’s actions and remarks from Israeli leaders, it would not accept Israel’s request to dismiss the case brought by South Africa.
The court did not order an immediate cease-fire, but it did order Israel to take all measures to prevent genocide in Gaza and preserve any evidence of the crime.
The ICJ is the U.N.’s top court and its rulings are binding, but it has no power to enforce them.
Israel has staunchly rejected the accusation of genocide, insisting that it is acting within its right to self-defense and accusing South Africa of “brazen gall” in bringing the case, which it has dismissed as a “false and baseless” defense of Hamas. Earlier this month, it sought the case’s dismissal.
Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping about 240 others. Israel immediately launched a counter-offensive against the group in Gaza, with the stated goal of destroying it. That offensive has killed over 26,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.
On the eve of the ruling, Hamas had stated that it would abide by the ceasefire order if Israel also agreed to do the same.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated ahead of the ruling that Israel would not comply with an order to halt its war in Gaza.
“Nobody will stop us – not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anybody else,” he wrote on X.
South Africa welcomed the measures describing the ruling as a “decisive victory for the international rule of law”.
Speaking at outside the court, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor said we approached this case with a positive spirit.”
“But our core purpose was to highlight the plight of the innocent in Palestine and also alert the International community to the great harm that is being done to the people of Palestine and also draw attention to the lack of justice and freedom, over many, many decades, much of which has been ignored by the International community.”
She added that she believed in order to implement the order Israel would have to instigate a ceasefire.
“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”.
Palestinians have also welcomed the provisional measures ordered by the court, with Foreign Minister Riyad al Maliki saying: “The ICJ judges assessed the facts and the law, they ruled in favour of humanity and international law.”
Maliki added that the Palestinian authority called on all states to ensure the measures ordered by the court are implemented “including by Israel, the occupying power”.
While the judges consider the genocide allegations – which may take years to rule on – South Africa asked the court “as a matter of extreme urgency” to issue an interim order compelling Israel to suspend military operations to protect Palestinians in Gaza while the case proceeds slowly through the court.