The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has urgently convened a crisis cabinet this Thursday to anticipate possible scenarios before the preliminary decision, scheduled this Friday, of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the accusation presented by South Africa against Israel of inciting genocide in the Gaza war.
The resolution of the highest UN court could lead to the imposition of precautionary measures such as the cessation of the offensive that the army unleashed three months ago in the Palestinian Strip, with a death toll of more than 25,000, after the attack launched by the Hamas militias, which caused 1,200 deaths in Israeli territory.
The meeting was attended by senior State officials, such as the Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, and the Minister of Justice, Yariv Levin, in a sign of the concern in the Jewish State about the consequences of the Hague ruling.
The Israeli defense in the case raised by South Africa has presented to the ICJ more than 30 minutes and declassified documents - both from Government meetings and communications between military commanders - in which the entry of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave was authorized, with in order to refute the charges that, from “the highest level” of the Executive, genocide has been incited, as reported this Thursday by
The New York Times.
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South Africa's lawyers in The Hague argued that incitement to genocide from Israel cannot be presented as simple isolated acts by “out of control groups.”
In their accusation, they included fifty public statements made by ministers, deputies or soldiers since the start of the war, on October 7, as proof of Israel's attempted genocide.
Among the statements collected in the case is that of the right-wing Nissim Vaturi, vice president of the Israeli Parliament, who called for “wiping Gaza off the face of the earth” in a radio interview, in which he also called for the “elimination” of the 100,000 Palestinians. that still remain in northern Gaza.
“I have no mercy for those who are there,” he added.
The prime minister himself appears in South Africa's lawsuit for mentioning Amalek in more than one speech, the enemy nation of the Israelites in the Bible whose extermination God asked King Saul: “You have to remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible.
And we remember it.”
Also compiled are the words of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant: “We face human animals and we act accordingly.”
The Minister of Historical Heritage, Amijai Eliyahu, even raised the option of dropping an atomic bomb on Gaza.
He is still in office.
“There is only one solution to cure cancer: eliminate all cancer cells,” said UN ambassador Gilad Erdan in reference to the Gaza war.
Israel tries to downplay these statements, considering that they have been misinterpreted.
With the contribution of the declassified minutes, Israel now intends to demonstrate before UN judges that the inflammatory political statements by senior Israeli officials presented two weeks ago by South Africa lacked substance, compared to the executive decisions and official orders of the Government and the General Staff of the Armed Forces aimed at protecting the lives of the Gazan civilian population.
Pro-Palestinian protest outside the headquarters of the International Court of Justice, which is examining the accusation against Israel for incitement to genocide, on January 11 in The Hague.KOEN VAN WEEL (EFE)
Among other documents cited by
The New York Times
are minutes of government sessions held at the end of October, in which Netanyahu himself ordered facilitating the sending of humanitarian aid, water and fuel to the Strip.
He also recommended the installation of field hospitals and the approach to the Gaza coast of a hospital ship offered by several countries.
In the minutes of a meeting that took place on November 14, the president is quoted as follows: “The prime minister insisted time and again on the need to significantly increase humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.”
On the 18th of the same month he once again emphasized “the absolute necessity” of allowing the entry of basic humanitarian aid.
“It is recommended to respond favorably to the United States' request to authorize the entry of fuel [into the enclave],” concludes another of the declassified minutes.
Water and electricity outage
The American newspaper confirms that the official documents that it has been able to consult have been edited.
Nor do they include the decisions taken in the first days of the war, in which the Government ordered to block the entry of all types of aid and cut off the supply of water and electricity from Israel to the Palestinian Strip.
Other files examined include email exchanges between Army officials and heads of UN agencies to organize the distribution of food, medicine and vaccines.
They contain communications for the delivery of a solar-powered refrigerator intended to store tests from a medical laboratory.
Israel maintains that it has no genocidal intent in its military offensive in Gaza and that it would be defenseless if it did not repel, through the use of force in legitimate defense, the attacks by the Islamist Hamas militia.
The Israeli representation has asked the ICJ to refrain from issuing precautionary measures and close the case.
Queue to get a plate of food in Rafah, Gaza, this Thursday. Anadolu (Anadolu via Getty Images)
The South African demand includes nine protection mechanisms against the presence of “acts of a genocidal nature” in Gaza, among them, the one that demands the cessation of the Israeli offensive.
South Africa invoked the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) in its application to the judges.
This treaty prescribes that force cannot be used to the point of committing the so-called “crime of crimes,” although it requires that the existence of genocidal intent be conclusively proven.
Precautionary measures, however, do not require proving that a genocide has occurred, it is enough that it is plausible.
The ICJ orders are mandatory, but the UN does not have the capacity to execute these decisions.
In any case, Israel's appearance before the Hague courts on charges of attempted genocide has drawn even more international attention to a conflict in which more than 1% of the population of the Gaza Strip has lost their lives. , most of the homes and infrastructure have been razed and two million civilians have been displaced.
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