The International Court of Justice (ICJ) began
public hearings on Thursday stemming from South Africa's recent
request for emergency provisional measures to immediately halt
Israeli operations under way in Rafah, in southern Gaza, where
more than one million Palestinians were sheltering during the
seven-month-long war in the besieged enclave.
Linked to South Africa's ongoing case charging
Israel with violating the Genocide Convention, the new request,
filed on 10 May, asked the ICJ's 15 judges to order
Israel to “immediately withdraw and seize its military operations
in the Rafah governate” and open up the enclave to international
aid workers and journalists.
South Africa delivered its arguments on Thursday afternoon, and
Israel is expected to respond at public hearings on Friday at The
Hague-based ICJ, which was established by the UN Charter as the
principal judicial organ of the UN.
You can read South Africa's current full request here.
New request calls for ‘unimpeded' access to Gaza
Amid a looming famine and deeper deadly Israeli incursions into
Gaza, the urgent request has asked the court to order Israel to
immediately “ensure and facilitate unimpeded access” to the
enclave for UN and other aid officials, fact-finding missions,
investigators and journalists.
That measure was requested to allow those officials and reporters
“to assess and record conditions on the ground in Gaza and enable
the effective preservation and retention of evidence”, with
Israel ensuring “its military does not act to prevent such
access”, according to South Africa's application.
South Africa also requested the court to require Israel to
submit, within one week of the order, a report on steps taken to
implement these new provisional measures.
South Africa: ‘Stop the ongoing genocide'
Representing South Africa, Vusimuzi Madonsela, the country's
ambassador to the Netherlands, said his country was compelled to
return to the court under its obligations under the Genocide
Convention “due to the continuing annihilation of the Palestinian
people, with over 35,000 now killed and most of Gaza reduced to
rubble”.
“Despite the short notice of this hearing, South Africa has
travelled here today to do what it can to stop the ongoing
genocide,” he said.
Israel is “breaching the binding orders of this court” and
of Security
Council resolutions, he said, also referring to ICJ
orders in January for provisional measures related to
the South Africa v. Israel case for Israel to,
among other things, ensure the required aid enters Gaza
unimpeded.
Israel's declared ‘safe zones' in Gaza are anything but
safe
Among a bevy of lawyers and experts presenting South Africa's
arguments on Thursday for its newest request, Vaughn Lowe said
“the key point today is that Israel's declared aim of wiping Gaza
from the map is about to be realised.”
“Evidence of appalling crimes and atrocities is literally being
destroyed and bulldozed, in effect wiping the slate clean for
those who've committed these crimes and making a mockery of
justice,” he said.
Max du Plessis, a lawyer for South Africa, said Israel's declared
“safe zones” are anything but safe.
“There is nothing humanitarian about these humanitarian zones,”
he said. “Israel's genocide of Palestinians continues through
military attacks and man-made starvation.”
Current court-ordered provisional measures
The ICJ has delivered several orders for provisional measures on
the South Africa v. Israel case, which began
in January following South Africa's application on 29 December
for the world court to consider its allegations against Israel
for contraventions of the Genocide Convention.
The ICJ delivered an order on
26 January for provisional measures, declaring that Palestinians
had a right to be protected from acts of genocide and calling on
Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent such
actions and allow the entry of desperately needed humanitarian
aid into Gaza.
Read the full text of the order here.
The court delivered additional provisional measures
in March, responding to a request from South Africa.
In that decision, the ICJ ordered Israel, “in view of the
worsening conditions of life faced by Palestinians in Gaza, in
particular the spread of famine and starvation”, to take “all
necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay, in
full cooperation with the United Nations, the unhindered
provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic
services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians throughout
Gaza”.
Next steps
The UN's top court will hear Israel's response on Friday.
The ICJ justices will then meet to render a decision on whether
or not to issue a fresh order.
Provisional measures are a type of temporary injunction ahead of
a final decision on the case, which will likely take years before
a judgement is reached. The measures are considered “mandatory
for implementation”, but the court has no means of enforcing
them.
