Accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, South Africa recently filed a petition to the International Court of Justice. The petition requested an order for Israel to halt its attacks against innocent civilians immediately.
It alleged that acts and omissions by Israel are genocidal as they are committed with the intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial, and ethnic group.
The petition asked the International Court of Justice to issue an interim order for Israel to suspend immediately its military operations in Gaza. South African Foreign Ministry has expressed concerns at the plight of civilians caught in the present Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip due to the indiscriminate use of force and forcible removal of inhabitants.
The Israeli-imposed war in Gaza has caused unimaginable destruction and an unbelievable story of misery, perished nearly 23500 people mostly children and women, while numbers of critically injured and permanent disabilities enlisted over fifty-five thousand.
The international community including the United Nations and its executive arm the UN Security Council (UNSC) failed against the world’s sole Jewish state and its resolute supporter the United States in realizing a ceasefire and ensuring peace in the war-turn territory.
The OIC and major Arab nations including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Egyptian political and diplomatic efforts could not bring any breakthrough except a temporary truce and exchange of dozens of prisoners from both sides.
Amusingly, Muslim nations did not move beyond media statements, courtesy calls for a ceasefire and forego diplomacy to end conflict and secure peace in Gaza. How faint voices and feeble requests could affect belligerent decisions in the absence of risks of any serious backlash from adversaries.
However, Muslim consciousness remained asleep and no single Muslim country threatened Israel for its blatant aggression and planned genocide of innocent unarmed Palestinians who had been bombed from the air and sea.
The Israeli military blocked the supply of essential elements including food, drinking water, fuel, electricity, and lifesaving drugs along with pushing for a forced exodus of millions of Palestinians from their homeland.
The international community currently views Israeli actions as a planned campaign to push over 2.3 million Palestinians out of Gaza toward Sinai (Egypt) or any other country for onward encroachment/Jewish settlement in newly occupied areas.
The ratio of human causalities, material and economic losses vis-a-vis human rights abuses and crimes against civilians stands currently at enormous killings, countless injuries, over a million displacements, mass human rights abuses, and siege of an entire Gaza enclave by Israeli troops.
Generally, world leaders, political analysts, and human rights experts including the South African President have accused Israel of ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinian Arabs in the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Many have compared Israel’s policies regarding Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank with South Africa’s past apartheid regime of racial segregation.
South Africa has been a fierce critic of the Israeli military campaign in densely populated enclaves. As far as, Johannesburg’s petition is concerned, a hearing into that request is likely in the coming days or weeks. The petition, if it goes ahead, will take years, on the other hand, an interim order for a ceasefire can emerge within weeks.
Israel says it will appear before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to counter South Africa’s genocide accusations over the war with Hamas in Gaza.
However, there is a discussion about whether Israel and its staunch supporters would honor and implement the verdict of the International Court of Justice if it comes against them. There is the least scope of any such possibility; however, it would be a moral victory for poor Gazans.
