Israel’s turn to defend itself in the kangaroo ICJ
Yesterday was Orwellian accuser South Africa’s turn, standing in for so many of the tyrannies and failed states around the world in using the ICJ (International Court of Justice) to accuse Israel.
Or, as this group succinctly put it yesterday: “Today South Africa took a short break from being a failed state that allows – basically – people to be killed in its own country because of their race, in order to lecture Jews on why trying to prevent a second Holocaust is genocide.”
Here’s what happened today:
Israel’s six legal representatives asserted that the ICJ has no jurisdiction over the complaints brought by South Africa since they relate to the laws of armed conflict, not genocide; argued that “random” inflammatory comments of Israeli politicians did not reflect policy determined in the state bodies making war policy; and insisted that the widespread harm to Palestinian civilians during the war was a result of Hamas’s massive use of civilian infrastructure for military purposes, and not genocidal acts.
They also underlined in depth the steps Israel has taken to warn civilians to evacuate from Israel Defense Forces operational areas and to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, including facilitating the establishment of field hospitals in Gaza to aid Gazans and mitigate harm to them.
In a court of actual justice, this case would have been thrown out at the outset – or, if the case were allowed to proceed, the verdict of “not guilty” would be obvious and inevitable. But this is not a court of actual justice, and I would not be the least bit surprised if it rendered a verdict of “guilty.” In fact, it would surprise me greatly if it issued any other verdict.
Here is the text of Israel’s opening remarks. Some excerpts:
The State of Israel is singularly aware of why the Genocide Convention, which has been invoked in these proceedings, was adopted. Seared in our collective memory is the systematic murder of 6 million Jews as part of a premeditated and heinous program for their total annihilation. …
… [T]he Genocide Convention was not designed to address the brutal impact of intensive hostilities on the civilian population, even when the use of force raises “very serious issues of international law and involves enormous suffering and continuing loss of life.” The convention was set apart to address a malevolent crime of the most exceptional severity. …
The applicant [South Africa] has regrettably put before the court a profoundly distorted factual and legal picture. The entirety of its case hinges on a deliberately curated, decontextualized, and manipulative description of the reality of current hostilities.
… [I]n its sweeping counterfactual description of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, [South Africa] seemed to erase both Jewish history and any Palestinian agency or responsibility. Indeed, the delegitimization of Israel since its very establishment in 1948 in the applicant’s submissions sounded barely distinguishable from Hamas’s own rejectionist rhetoric.
It is unsurprising, therefore, that in the applicant’s telling, both Hamas’s responsibility for the situation in Gaza and the very humanity of its Israeli victims are removed from view.
The attempt to weaponize the term “genocide” against Israel in the present context does more than tell the court a grossly distorted story, and it does more than empty the word of its unique force and special meaning. It subverts the object and purpose of the convention itself, with ramifications for all states seeking to defend themselves against those who demonstrate total disdain for life and for the law….
We know of the brutality of October 7 not only from the harrowing testimonies of the survivors, the unmistakable proof of carnage and sadism left behind, and the forensic evidence taken at the scene. We know it because the assailants proudly filmed and broadcast their barbarism.
The events of that day are all but ignored in the applicant’s submissions, but we are compelled to share with the court some fraction of its horror, the largest calculated mass murder of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust.
We do so not because these acts, however sadistic and systematic, release Israel of its obligations to uphold the law as it defends its citizens and territory. That is unquestionable. We do so because it is impossible to understand the armed conflict in Gaza without appreciating the nature of the threat that Israel is facing and the brutality and lawlessness of the armed force confronting it.
Much more at the link.
I’m certainly not suggesting that it is dispositive or even accurate but the most damning ‘evidence’ that South Africa offered was the video of purported Israeli soldiers gleefully attacking a Gazan village. A video it is claimed that the Israeli soldiers filmed themselves. Its presentation implies that Israeli soldiers are just as barbaric as Hamas. If untrue, that video needs to be debunked. If true but not IDF approved policy, that too must be addressed.
Not that the left won’t continue to propagandize it but the truth needs to come out so that it can be rebutted by Israel’s supporters.
From the post: “…..and insisted that the widespread harm to Palestinian civilians during the war was a result of Hamas’s massive use of civilian infrastructure for military purposes, and not genocidal acts.”
Who doesn’t understand that if they’ve been paying any attention at all? It’s as if the pro-Palestinians are blind to the actual conditions on the ground.
It’s obvious that this is the usual leftist propaganda. Keep repeating it often enough and more people will believe it. Lie, and lie some more. Everywhere you turn, you see this sort of thing. It’s all aimed at one thing – the destruction of the West. And now it’s clear, this has been their goal since the beginning of the Cold War. Like termites, they keep weakening the foundation of Western civilization.
J.J.:
The propaganda-makers certainly know it. But a lot of their audience either doesn’t know it, or excuses it as part of the Palestinian “resistance” to supposed Israeli evil.
And if course hiding behind civilians enables the Palestinian and leftist goal of accusing the Israelis of Nazi-like genocide. Win/win for the Palestinians and the left.
Geoffrey Britain:
The Israeli lawyers addressed a lot of the “evidence” apparently. I don’t know all the details, but it’s probably covered in the Israeli press much better than in ours.
By the way, every conflict and every war has its rogue actors – My Lai, for example. It doesn’t mean it’s standard, or equivalent to anything the terrorist enemy does, where it IS standard and where it is the goal of the operation.
Mylai was typical of how Russian forces do war, it’s called Zachitska, or Cleansing, it what the Syrians and Algerians were taught, and once upon a time what the Egyptians did, probably now since we’ve driven Sisi into Russian hands,
Mugabe would be so proud!
not to mention Idi Amin, who allowed the pflp to land in Uganda,
Why should Israel have “”defend” itself in the idiotic, PC, International Court of Justice, absurdly so named. Who put it on trial? Progressives? Do they have standing to “bring charges”?
To prosecute whomever they wish? And who will execute the sentences of the ICJ?
It is all an antisemitic puppet show. The Euros have an excellent record at that.
yes how does South Africa have dibs, they have been a dumpsterfire since the supposed liberation of Azania under Mandela, then Mbeki Zuma and now Ramaphosa,
yes how does South Africa have dibs, they have been a dumpsterfire since …
I’m sure that’s why SA is claiming dibs.
i’ve mentioned norman podhoretz, lamentations, it may have been early in the intifada maybe 89, where he feared what fate would befall israel, he has been mostly silent in the last few years,
Geoffrey-
The Republic of South Africa has become wretched place of crime, corruption and unemployment, all because Mandela and F.W. DeKlerk nominally agreed that Bantus(85% of population) could farm as well as whites. It has since become a part of the SA constitution that land can be seized by the state from white farmers without compensation.
South Africa is a failed state despite its rich natural resources. Blaming apartheid originated in the righteous USA.
Please do not argue with me. I have spent months there, much at an Anglican mission hospital “in the bush”. 4 docs, 200 patients, many with TB, complex surgeries. Some years later their visas expired and these docs asked for permission to stay and continue. Bantu Pretoria said NO.
neo,
IF the video is true, I would hope that the Israeli government would address it by publicly stressing that
rogue elements/actions will not be tolerated and, at the least expel those troops from the army. Israel cannot afford for its troops to even appear to routinely commit war crimes. And again, that is if it is not a Hamas false flag event.
Cicero,
Not only will I not argue with you, I entirely agree with you and have long been aware of those very facts. South Africa is IMO under even worse governance than under apartheid.
after the last 30 years they have no excuse, why did the country descend into chaos, if liberty is what they wanted,
Hamas is like that in Microcosm, all it has labored in 15 years is death dealing and corruption,
why did the country descend into chaos, if liberty is what they wanted,
Wanting liberty and handling liberty are different matters, as anyone in their early 20s soon discovers.
Many twenty-somethings descend into chaos.
well the leadership wasn’t in their twenties, they were largely Soviet trained, in border countries some in Eastern Europe, of course that didn’t provide much of an example,
But the Sooth Africans were young and hoping for the best. They didn’t know where their leaders were trained and what that meant.
If the Americans, who backed our revolution, had been betrayed by our leaders then, we still wouldn’t have been wrong to want freedom.
However, I take your point that anyone trained by the Soviets isn’t dedicated to freedom.
The last sentence Neo excerpts…
“We do so because it is impossible to understand the armed conflict in Gaza without appreciating the nature of the threat that Israel is facing and the brutality and lawlessness of the armed force confronting it.”
In the UN and the ICJ, they not only understand it would seem they also approve.
Round-up of responses, among several more good reports from Powerline’s picks:
David Horovitz
https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-hearing-out-south-africa-and-israel-on-genocide-what-a-fair-minded-court-would-do/
Alan Dershowitz
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20298/international-court-of-injustice-israel
This is my favorite, though, from a few says ago: short and to the point.
https://notthebee.com/article/john-fetterman-is-gonna-be-a-full-blown-republican-at-this-rate-
“I did not have this on my 2024 Bingo card.”
To me seems SA has gone full Marxist, so it’s only a Propaganda ploy, sadly will work on the world stage somewhat.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/desmond-tutu-an-honored-anti-semite/
==
Jerry Falwell in 1985 was willing to be outré and refer to Desmond Tutu as a ‘phony’. He saw the malice in Tutu that others refused to see.
Related, heh…
“The Greatest Islamophobia Hoax in America Exposed;
“The ‘Islamophobic’ shooter of three ‘Palestinians’ in Vermont actually supported Hamas.”—
https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-greatest-islamophobia-hoax-in-america-exposed/
Truth sucks.
So subvert it! Conceal it!
LIE about it!!
Vote Democrat!!
+ Bonus:
Dr. Jill on her professional opinion of Joe Biden!
Short version (for sanity).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EEmLyYnrdk
Long version (if you can stomach it…or for those who need more sick humor in their lives…)
https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/jill-biden-joe-s-age-is-an-asset-he-s-wise-he-has-experience-201746501630
When so many Jews are gathered in one place – you realize how many of them are stone cold stupid.
Israel should not even be recognizing this tribunal… Part of extricating ourselves from Oslo is rejecting any attempts to make our sovereignty conditional, refusing to beg to be left alone, refusing the “colonialism” fable that has grown up during the Oslo years.
Hopefully this will be the last time the Oslo dead-heads damage Israel’s reputation and legitimacy.
The one stroke of genius was sending Barak to do this fool’s task.
It amazes me how the hardcore Israeli Left completely misreads the public’s attitude to these stunts and attempted power grabs.
Israel as it exists today is because of the post WW II Pax Americana. , as well as the Nazi/ German Holocaust of murdering some 10 million civilians, 6 million of them Jews.
Their defense is a theater for the USA, especially, but a general defense of response to terrorism. The key metric, opaque to the public, is how much Biden’s SoS Blinken will push Israel to premature ceasefire, or other Hamas friendly demands.