By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
South Africa is set to submit a detailed memorial against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday, aiming to substantiate its case that Israel is committing genocide in Palestine.
International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola says that the memorial contains more evidence, in “forensic detail,” to show that “this is not just a plausible case of genocide, but indeed it is genocide.”
After a memorial has been filed, the respondent (in this case Israel) will need to file a counter-memorial. A deadline of 28 July 2025 has been announced for this. A counter-memorial, according to the court’s rules, contains “an admission or denial of the facts stated in the memorial; any additional facts, if necessary; observations concerning the statement of law in the memorial; a statement of law in answer thereto; and the submissions”.
According to the Rules of the Court, after the closure of the written proceedings, the case is ready for hearing. With Israel only scheduled to respond in writing in July 2025, it will be a long time before oral arguments reach the court.
South Africa filed its 84-page application at the ICJ – the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN) – on 29 December 2023, accusing Israel of genocide in its war in Gaza and seeking to halt its military assault on the enclave, pending the court’s final decision on whether Israel is perpetrating genocide.
On 26 January, the court ordered Israel to prevent genocide, to prevent and punish incitement to genocide and to increase humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. But it stopped short of ordering a ceasefire, which was the maximum provisional measure Pretoria had called for.
It also called on Hamas to release its remaining hostages whom it captured in its attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. A total of 97 hostages remain unaccounted for.
The document will form the main basis of the case it launched last December and has since been successful in three attempts to the world’s highest court to order interim measures to temper Israel’s attacks on the occupied territory.
Several countries, including, Türkiye, Nicaragua, Palestine, Spain, Mexico, Libya and Colombia, have all joined the case which began public hearings in January.
In May, the ICJ ordered Israel to halt its offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. It was the third time the 15-judge panel issued preliminary orders seeking to rein in the death toll and alleviate humanitarian suffering in the blockaded enclave, where the casualty count has crossed 42,800.