The acts of genocide were carried out by Hamas against Israel and not the other way around. In its defence before judges of the Hague Court, the Jewish state responded to South Africa's complaints by arguing that the prosecution "did not bring any evidence" of alleged genocide attempts in the Strip but "only evidence of a moral defensive war like no other".
On the second day of the hearing, as six Latin American countries sided with South Africa, Israel's defense team, led by Foreign Ministry legal adviser Tal Becker, warned the judges that Pretoria's representatives presented "a deeply distorted factual and legal picture." "The whole case," he added, "is based on a deliberately decontextualized and manipulative description of the reality of the current hostilities."
Becker then described the "massacre, mutilation, rape and kidnapping on a massive scale" carried out by Hamas on October 7 and warned that "if there were acts of genocide, they were perpetrated against Israel."
What is the UN Convention on the Crime of Genocide Adopted by the Assembly in 48 and entered into force in 1951?
To corroborate his words, Becker played to the court a recording of October 7 in an Israeli kibbutz in which a Hamas terrorist brags about killing Jews. He then showed the judges an interview in which a Hamas official, Ghazi Hamad, swore that the October 7 attack on Israel was only the beginning until the country was "annihilated."
Israel also disputed the accusation of deliberately targeting the civilian population in Gaza. Hamas has systematically and illegally incorporated its military structure into schools, mosques, hospitals and other sensitive locations. A planned and repugnant method of warfare." In essence, South Africa "told only half the story," omitting Hamas' attack on Israel. He then warned the Court about South Africa's very use of the term genocide. "Not all conflicts," he explained, "are genocidal. The crime of genocide is a crime that is solely intentional. It's the crime of crimes." "If accusations of genocide were to become the common currency of armed conflict whenever and wherever it occurs, the essence of this crime would be diluted and lost," he added.
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In its rejoinder, Israel warned that statements by individual politicians or soldiers should not be taken as evidence of "genocidal intent" (as South Africa claims), but those of the government. "Military statements do not represent the course of action: what comes from the Chief of Staff of the Army has clearly shown an intent to prevent and reduce civilian casualties and to abide by the rules of war," Shaw said.
For Israel, South Africa's is therefore nothing more than "a pamphlet" that Israeli Foreign Minister Katz hoped the Court would "reject."
He then attacked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for lashing out at Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. "Let's not forget the genocide of the Armenians," Katz told Erdogan, "nor the massacres against the Kurds. You have destroyed a people. We defend ourselves against your barbarous friends." Colombia, Brazil, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela, although with different initiatives, have made the Pretoria initiative in The Hague their own, calling it a "historic step". And the U.N. Human Rights Office said Israel had repeatedly failed to comply with international humanitarian law with its offensive in Gaza. On the war front, Israel has announced that under a Qatari-brokered agreement, medicine will be distributed to hostages held in Gaza by Hamas.
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