Genocide in Gaza: something pending

It is not just another news but a very important one that the case of the alleged genocide underway in Gaza has been opened in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

That is, about some of the direct effects of Israel's sustained military operation that began in October 2023.

A healthy step for the ICJ.

In contexts of diminished capacity for action of the international community, this shows that the capacity for action/reaction in the organized world in the face of an atrocity has not completely vanished,

What genocide could be like.

Serious crime that in other times - such as the Nazi holocaust - was rampant with absolute impunity.

On repeated occasions the ICJ has stated that the 1848 Convention against Genocide included fundamental principles of general international law.

Among them, the proscription of genocide, as well as the obligation to prevent and punish it.

The Convention is not a rhetorical catalog of declarations, it establishes binding obligations, with mandatory compliance.

And for all States.

Whether or not they have ratified the Convention.

No State, therefore, is unbound from the obligations of the Convention nor can it claim to be.

And vice versa, a State can promote an ICJ action, even if the acts were not committed in its territory nor did it directly affect it.

Significance of the case opened by South Africa

In a note published in this same newspaper on January 18, I have already referred to the subject.

I reaffirm the importance of the case opened by South Africa before the IC) on the alleged genocide in Israel's actions in Gaza and other Palestinian areas in the last three months.

It is not irrelevant that several countries, including some Latin American countries, such as Colombia, have joined the case presented by South Africa.

There are varied and powerful voices - and States - that advocate, based on international law, against the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians that Israel has been carrying out since October of last year.

That is prohibited internationally.

And the ICJ has jurisdiction to hear and rule on acts that have the essential components of genocide, such as the facts included in the case presented by South Africa.

An alleged genocide in progress

By bringing the case, South Africa was aiming for a ruling by the ICJ to stop the alleged genocide underway in Gaza.

Today's times are very different from those of total and absolute defenselessness, in times before the international proscription of genocide.

That allowed impunity for major genocides prior to 1948. Among others, the Holocaust of Nazism, which devastated the lives of more than six million Jews, or Stalin's repeated campaigns of repression in the Soviet Union and neighboring countries.

The ICJ, as is known, admitted the South African case, flatly rejecting Israel's arguments to dismiss it.

On the contrary, the ICJ abounded in facts about the effects of the Israeli military operation.

It established, for example, that

“

the military operation carried out by Israel after the attack of October 7, 2023 has caused, among other things, tens of thousands of deaths and injuries and the destruction of homes, schools, medical facilities and other vital infrastructure, as well as displacement on a massive scale

.”

It is an almost unprecedented fact that while an alleged genocide is taking place, a case is opened in the most important international court on the planet.

The ICJ did not stand “in profile”, looking the other way.

He addressed the topic given the seriousness of events that are known to the world.

Thus, the Court gave an example of institutional consistency and coordination with the proscription of genocide.

He left it pristinely established that

“

an unprecedented 93% of Gaza's population faces critical levels of hunger, with insufficient food and high levels of malnutrition.

At least one in four households faces “catastrophic conditions”: suffering from extreme food shortages and hunger, and has resorted to selling their possessions and other extreme measures to afford a single meal.

"Hunger, destitution and death are evident

.

"

Clearer, not even clean water.

The provisional measures

As is known, last week the ICJ adopted the decision on provisional measures requested by South Africa.

The court was required to order a kind of immediate “ceasefire.”

Since that was not exactly the Court's decision, some people and currents of opinion have critically expressed that the decision on the provisional measure fell “short” by not having ordered an immediate “ceasefire.”

This matter is debatable.

It is true that the ICJ did not establish this “ceasefire” within the provisional measures.

But things cannot be distorted by accusing the ICJ of “turning a blind eye” to the very serious situation.

Well, the court did order substantive and precise measures - six in total - to prevent acts of genocide.

Measures that have been in force since that day and are not irrelevant.

They would be unfulfilled - violated - if Israel continued with its actions and its aggressive policy as if nothing had happened.

Within this, three very relevant issues stand out.

a) The ICJ ordered Israel

“

to prevent and punish direct and public incitement to commit genocide

.

”

It's no small thing.

If Israel does not modify its behavior and continues with its violent discourse fueled by prolific, systematic and repeated incitement to genocide, it would be violating international law.

I remember some examples, which I mentioned in my previous note: Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant

(“

Gaza will not be what it was before: we will eliminate everything

”

), Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, about the Gazans

(“they will not receive a single drop of water not a single battery until they leave this world”

) or Colonel Yogev Bar-Sheshet on TV

(“

Whoever comes back here, if he comes back later, he will find scorched earth. Without houses, without agriculture, without anything. They have no future

”

).

b) The ICJ also ordered Israel to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance

.”

And that Israel must adopt

“

effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of acts covered” by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Given the facts that are known to the world, compliance with this decision of the ICJ would lead, in itself, to the cessation of the policy of aggression and siege, which has generated unprecedented famine in Gaza, and the virtual destruction of the facilities and medical capabilities in the Strip.

This fundamental decision of the ICJ means something clear: Israel's international obligation, starting this month, to feed and provide medical care to the population in Gaza.

Nothing less.

c) The core of the matter: the prevention of genocide.

Contained in the order to Israel to

“

take all measures at its disposal

”

to prevent crimes that amount to genocide, such as “killing, causing serious physical and mental harm, inflicting on the group living conditions calculated to cause its total or partial physical destruction ", and impose measures aimed at preventing births within the group

.

"

A whole “set” of rules established by the ICJ in these three matters.

It places certain immediate obligations on Israel: to feed and provide medical care to the victims, to cease statements apologizing or promoting the genocide, to stop killing Palestinians, and to preserve evidence of the genocide.

Obligations that point to Israel, certainly.

But, indirectly, but also to the international community

in general

and the inexcusable responsibilities of the organized international system (UN Security Council, for example) to contribute to enforcing the decisions of the most important court in the world.

And, of course, of the countries that make up the international community and, in particular, those that support, in one way or another, Israeli military operations.

The positive of the ICJ decision

I recap the essentials: the provisional measures requested were aimed at the ICJ ordering an immediate ceasefire, as well as the Israeli military operations that have been decimating the civilian population in Gaza.

That didn't happen.

That was not - for now - the decision of the ICJ, which has generated some pessimistic reactions and interpretations that I consider to be wrong.

Indeed, a careful rereading of the ICJ decision, adopted last Friday, reveals several positive aspects that are a contribution to peace in the area and to the protection of the overwhelmed rights of the Palestinian population.

The international court located the events within the framework of the Israeli military operation underway since October 7.

The ICJ established, forcefully,

“

that the military operation carried out by Israel after the attack of October 7, 2023 has caused, among other things, tens of thousands of deaths and injuries and the destruction of homes, schools, medical facilities and other vital infrastructure, as well as mass-scale travel

.”

And he laid down certain “obligations to do” to Israel.

First, that it

“

prevents and punishes direct and public incitement to commit genocide

.”

And it demanded that Israel

“

take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance

.”

Not only, then, that Israel cease its attacks on the population, but that it protect - with "immediate and effective measures" - Palestinian civilians.

This means, to begin with, that you stop bombing them.

The ICJ also ordered Israel to protect the nearly 50,000 women who give birth in Gaza.

And that it must adopt

“

effective measures to prevent the destruction and guarantee the preservation of evidence related to the statements of acts falling within the scope of application of articles II and III of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide against members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip

.”

The court also ordered Israel to

“

take all measures at its disposal

”

to prevent crimes that amount to genocide, such as

“

killing, causing serious physical and mental harm, inflicting on the group measures intended to prevent births within the group

.”

The Court ordered Israel to explain to the ICJ within one month what it had done to apply this and the other provisional measures.

Important outstanding obligations

The ICJ has therefore ordered Israel, among other things, to feed and provide medical care to victims in Gaza, cease public statements apologizing for genocide, preserve evidence of genocide, and stop killing Palestinian civilians.

“Come back and report in a month ,

”

she told Israel.

Nothing less.

The issue of Palestinian rights, then, ran through the ICJ decision from head to toe.

And it pointed precisely and unambiguously to the

“

right of the Palestinians of Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts identified in Article III, and the right of South Africa to seek compliance by Israel with its obligations.” last under the Convention

”.

What is clear is that the United Nations system now has the responsibility to accompany the decision of the highest world court.

And to adopt, in that future, the corresponding decisions so that it is fully respected and complied with and international law prevails.

The incessant occupation

This is an occasion that should be conducive to seriously putting on the agenda the serious pending issue of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights.

In flagrant violation of international law and that dates back to the Israeli war of aggression in 1967.

More than 70 years of unpunished occupation of Palestinian territories.

And, within those areas (particularly in the Israeli-occupied West Bank), so-called Israeli “settlers” appropriating lands and resources from local Palestinian farmers and settlers.

A process of dispossession and continued abuse that has been going on for decades.

“Geopolitical” blindness is not seeing the great component of tension and injustice in the areas surrounding Israel.

Or assume, wrongly, that the violence, deaths and attacks only began with Hamas and in October of last year.

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