SOUTH AFRICA vs ISRAEL at the ICJ: Zionism stands accused of genocide of Palestinians at The Hague’s court

“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
NELSON MANDELA,
International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People,
Pretoria, South Africa, on 4th December 1997.

BY EDUARDO CARLI FOR A CASA DE VIDRO

DEN HAAG, NEDERLANDS, 17/01/2024

After 100 days of <Zionist> aggression against the Palestinian territories, the heart-wrenching facts are: there are already more than 24,000 people killed by the Israeli armed forces – more than 10,000 children and more than 7,000 women, besides more than 64,000 people injured and maimed. While famine and thirst ravage the land, more than 69,000 homes have been completely destroyed by the bombs while thousands of other residences have been damaged. More than 370 schools and universities were bombed to rubble by the air strikes. Approximately 142 mosques and 135 hospitals were also bombed and destroyed. More than 100 journalists murdered (probably in targeted assassinations, and not only as a result of “collateral damage”). Also, more than 127 doctors and nurses were killed. (Sources: Al Jazeera, Slingshot Media, Democracy Now!)

Never in the history of the United Nations so many of its staff has lost their lifes in a conflict: <UNRWA has lost more than a hundred human beings of its team and its recent reports show Gaza as hell-on-Earth.>

Israel has intentionally created hellish living conditions in the Gaza Strip, including using what < Oxfam calls “the use of hunger as a tool of war against the civilian population” >, in its insane campaign of collective punishment for the October 7th 2023 attacks by Hamas and other jihadis in southern Israel.

Almost 2 million people have been expelled from their homes and forced to become refugees – many of them forced to move multiple times. Those who refuse or are unable to move immediately are bombarded; but many of those moving along supposed safe routes or sheltering in supposedly war-immune refugee camps are also being blown up.

The number of political prisoners has also increased, with hundreds of arrests in the West Bank – now, more than 8,800 Palestinians are detained in Israeli prisons – meanwhile, Hamas holds just over 100 hostages hidden in the Gaza tunnel network, demanding Israel’s release of imprisoned Palestinians. Zionists call this process “self-defense” and Uncle Sam supports them with dollars, excuses and War on Terror rhetoric. But South Africa turned to the ICJ and gave it a more appropriate name: “genocide”.

THE HAGUE TRIALS

The first hearings, held in The Hague, at the Peace Palace, in the I.C.J., can be watched in its entirity below, and A Casa de Vidro has also made <available the whole document (more than 80 pages) that SOUTH AFRICA has submitted to the court (ACESS/DOWNLOAD PDF @ GOOGLE CLOUD)>:

SOUTH AFRICA – January 11th 2024

ISRAEL – January 12th 2024

I took to the streets of Den Haag to see what the hell the Dutch were doing outdoors when temperatures dropped below freezing. It was fucking cold and yet we were there, the resilient protesters. As a photographer, documentary filmmaker, journalist, philosopher and artist, I often try to get myself into trouble by being right in the middle of a hurricany crowd. The most significant thing I can report, perhaps, is Mandela’s presence among us. And this seems to be an excellent path: Mandela did not fulfill the entire content of his historical mission, his life task, and this phrase that appears as a slogan, and which has already been cited here twice (in photo and in text), puts it very clearly: the freedom of the Palestinians is an integral part of the Freedom-for-All process. Our freedom will always remain incomplete without the liberation of the Palestinians. So the predominant frame among us, who are supporting the South African initiative, is this: apartheid is the core of the problem.

The solution to the “problem” lies not in the ethnic cleansing of the territories by Israel, in the imposition of a new Nakba on the victims of forced displacement and industrialized death who outnumber more than 2 million people affected, but in the dismantling of apartheid. Israel must give up its imposition of apartheid, end its criminal occupation, respect the people’s right to self-determination, and Zionism must be toppled from its pedestal of diabolical arrogance.

South Africa stands alongside Palestine at the ICJ and beyond, showing the international community its courageous willingness to stand up against the apartheid and the genocidal intent of the Zionists, and the light of this event spreads its rebellious heat and light throughout the so-called “Third World”. … The fear of many geopolitical analysts is that the military conflict will escalate and spread, with the fire of war gaining fuel and setting fire to fronts in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and the Red Sea. We’ve seen rebellion also exploding everywhere – for ex., the Houthis in Yemen rise up in the Red Sea, “in solidarity with Gaza”, and suffer from retaliatory bombings from the US and UK.

The streets of what was once called the “First World”, in New York, London, Amsterdam, Rome, Paris, Berlin, are also filled with protesters. Even in the urban epicenters of a Europe that dreams of eternally being a Fortress. In the Arab world, tens of thousands are also demonstrating, from Casablanca to Algiers, from Baghdad to Beirut. In The Hague, History is being written, with no guarantee of a happy ending or a solution in favor of a ceasefire, at a terrible moment for humanity in which Human Rights have been turned into ashes and International Law has been completely trampled on…

FURTHER RECOMMENDED READING:

TIME – https://time.com/6553708/gaza-end-of-western-hypocrisy-essay/

INTERCEPT – https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/14/namibia-condemns-germany-for-defending-israel-in-icj-genocide-case

AL JAZEERA – https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/14/namibia-condemns-germany-for-defending-israel-in-icj-genocide-case

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/14/a-cultural-genocide-which-of-gazas-heritage-sites-have-been-destroyed

THE GUARDIAN – “The ICJ case shows how western logic is wearing thin and its persuasive power waning in a multipolar world. The significance of the fact that the country bringing the case is South Africa – an icon of the ravages of colonialism, settlement and apartheid – cannot be lost on anyone. It symbolises a vast racial injustice, too raw and recent to be dismissed as ancient history. In the figure of Nelson Mandela, there lies an evocative example of moral clarity undimmed by persecution. It is no surprise that the support expressed for South Africa is entirely from countries in the global south.” https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/15/israel-trial-south-africa-icj-palestine

TRUTHOUT – “For nearly three months, Israel has enjoyed virtual impunity for its atrocious crimes against the Palestinian people. That changed on December 29 when South Africa, a state party to the Genocide Convention, filed an 84-page application in the International Court of Justice (ICJ, or World Court) alleging that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

South Africa’s well-documented application alleges that “acts and omissions by Israel … are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent … to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group” and that “the conduct of Israel — through its State organs, State agents, and other persons and entities acting on its instructions or under its direction, control or influence — in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, is in violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention.”

https://truthout.org/articles/israel-is-terrified-the-world-court-will-decide-its-committing-genocide/

VIDEOS PRODUZIDOS POR A CASA DE VIDRO / HAIA, ICJ – 2024: