South Africa has made its genocide case against Israel in court. Here's what both sides said and what happens next
theconversation.com
The International Court of Justice has heard arguments from each side of an extraordinary genocide case. What was said, and what happens now?

Ai generated TLDR:

South Africa has presented a case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging that Israel’s attacks on Gaza amount to genocide. The case centers on the killing of 23,210 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and the displacement of 85% of Palestinians. South Africa argues that Israeli forces were often aware that their bombings would cause significant civilian casualties and that they targeted safe zones, mosques, hospitals, schools, and refugee camps. The Israeli government rejects these allegations and argues that its attacks are directed at Hamas soldiers, not civilians. The ICJ will decide whether the allegations are plausible and may order an interim ceasefire and steps to prevent genocide. If the court rules in favor of South Africa, it would be a major development in international law, but enforcement of the ruling is uncertain. The case could influence smaller powers and put countries like Australia in a difficult position.

  • sin_free_for_00_days
    624·
    10 months ago

    By the time the court decides, this will be old news and everyone getting all uptight now will have moved on to newer, flashier conflicts.

    • Emily (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      27·
      10 months ago

      I don’t think it is productive or helpful to be overly cynical. An ICJ ruling may be too late or insufficient to stop a war, but officially committing a genocide would be headline news, and will erode public and political support for the occupation of Palestine.

      • sin_free_for_00_days
        220·
        10 months ago

        I don’t know that it’s a foregone conclusion that the ICJ would even come back with a genocide decision. I think that’s a bullshit charge myself.

          • eatthecake@lemmy.world
            26·
            10 months ago

            https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml

            In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

            Killing members of the group. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part . Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

            Hamas certainly seem to have committed genocide.

            I’m actually struggling to see how any international war is not genocide by this definition ,given that there is always intent to destroy at least a part of your enemies national group. If said destruction has to be the reason for the war in order to meet the definirion of genocide then I don’t think Israel qualifies in this instance as their primary objective is defense against Hamas.

            • Sodis@feddit.de
              91·
              10 months ago

              In a war you usually target soldiers and evacuate civilians. I don’t think, that there are many wars, where one side was able to block all access to food and drinkable water.

              • eatthecake@lemmy.world
                36·
                10 months ago

                Israel has not blocked all access to food and drinkable water. If they had done so there would be noone left alive by now. Humantitarian aid is insufficient but not non existant.

                Is the truth not bad enough? Why the need to lie?

              • sin_free_for_00_days
                14·
                10 months ago

                And by the numbers and actions it sure seems like Israel warns civilians and targets soldiers. It’s just a war crime that Hamas is using civilians as human shields.

        • Emily (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          5·
          10 months ago

          Obviously it isn’t a foregone conclusion. Even if they come back in favor of Israel, that doesn’t mean people, especially Palestinians, won’t remember what happened.

          • sin_free_for_00_days
            612·
            10 months ago

            The Palestinians will never forget what Israel did because Israel will never forget what Palestinians did because of what Israel did because of what Palestinians did because of what Israel did because of what Palestinians did because of what Israel did because of what Palestinians did because of what Israel did because of what Palestinians did because of what Israel did beca…

            • Emily (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
              7·
              10 months ago

              I don’t particularly appreciate your insinuation that because I said Palestine won’t forget Israel’s actions that I somehow support the cycle of violence in the region.

              • sin_free_for_00_days
                44·
                10 months ago

                As I didn’t particularly appreciate your insinuation that because I said it’s a hopeless circle of violence and grievances that I somehow support fucking Israel.

                • Emily (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                  42·
                  10 months ago

                  Please take the aggression down a notch, I was not the one who claimed you support Israel and I did not intend to make such an implication.

              • crapwittyname@lemm.ee
                6·
                10 months ago

                To be fair the current Israel propaganda line is: “Hamas are to blame for every Palestinian death because of October 7th 2023”. When asked about any events in human history before this date, they plug their ears and scream “RREEEEE!!! HAMAS RAPE MACHINE!!! HUMAN MEAT SHIEEEEELLLLLDS!!! ALL TERRORIST!!! KILL ALL!!!”.
                So if this is an Israel propagandist, at least they’re a bit more subtle than, yknow, the actual government of Israel.

              • sin_free_for_00_days
                34·
                10 months ago

                I’m sure you and Jared Kushner just have such amazing insights into the area. I really don’t know why they still don’t have peace in the Middle East.