The International Court of Justice (ICJ) took umbrage recently with the Zionist State of Israel and its repeated claim—concerning its war on Gaza—of exercising its right of “self-defense,” no matter how many people its military had to massacre, maim, starve and dehumanize in the process. The ICJ rendered its ruling on Jan. 26.
According to Al Jazeera, “at least 27,019 people, (mostly women and children) have been killed and 66,139 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, 2023. The revised death toll in Israel from the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks stands at 1,139
In discovering plausibility in South Africa’s “airtight” case against Israel, the ICJ (also known as the World Court) “treated with contempt the argument from Israel that the case should be dismissed as it is (only) exercising its right of self-defense,” explained Scottish author and journalist Craig Murray on his website.
“This argument took up over half of Israel’s pleadings. Not only did the court find there is a plausible case of genocide, the court only mentioned self-defense once in its interim ruling—and that was merely to note that Israel had claimed it,” he added. Mr. Murray is also a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and represented the UK at Sierra Leone Peace talks
›“With this case, South Africa has put not only Israel but the entirety of the global justice system on trial,” wrote Haidar Eid, an associate professor at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, on Al-Jazeera.
“This case is a major turning point for humanity, because it marks the first time in history when a Global South country bravely crossed a red line drawn by the colonial West and demanded its favorite settler colony, Israel, be held to account for the crimes it has long been committing against an Indigenous people. Today, thanks to South Africa, the entire colonial West, and its centuries-long history of theft, dispossession, and injustice is on trial at the World Court,” Haidar Eid added.
Through its deliberations that favor South Africa’s case against Israel, the ICJ may have inflamed the Zionist State and its Western supporters. If actions speak louder than words, on the three consecutive days following the court’s Jan 26 provisional measures declaration increased carpet bombings in Gaza killed each day, nearly 200 mostly women and children.
On the day after the ICJ declaration but without evidence Israeli intelligence accused 12 staff members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) of being linked to Hamas and being involved in the Oct. 7 attack. This led several Western countries to cut off funding to vital aid and services.
“In Gaza,” explained voanews.com, “it (UNRWA) has been the main supplier of food, water and shelter (the life-line) to civilians during the Israel-Hamas war.”
“UNRWA operates schools, health clinics, infrastructure projects and aid programs in refugee camps that now resemble dense urban neighborhoods in Gaza, the Israeli occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. It has 13,000 employees in Gaza alone, most of them Palestinians,” the website noted.
The U.S. which was the first country to suspend funding is UNRWA’s largest donor, providing it with $340 million in 2022. The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland have also suspended funding. Norway and Ireland said they would continue funding.
UNRWA Commissioner, General Philippe Lazzarini, who launched an internal review of the agency, expressed shock that countries would suspend aid “based on alleged behavior of a few individuals and as the war (in Gaza) continues, needs are deepening & famine looms,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter.
South Africa, who is being praised around the world for taking it upon itself to take Israel to the World Court, on Jan 31 said, via its foreign minister, that all nation states “have an obligation to stop funding and facilitating Israel’s military actions in Gaza after the World Court made clear those actions could be deemed as genocidal.”
The Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor added that the ICJ ruling “makes it clear that it is plausible that genocide is taking place against the Palestinian people in Gaza. This necessarily imposes an obligation on all states to cease funding and facilitating Israel’s military actions.”
The reason the court’s response is so damning, is not that South Africa is asserting genocide as its reason to come before the ICJ, but that the court itself is identifying the atrocities committed by Israel’s military in Gaza as undeniable “facts,” according to former Ambassador Murray, on his website, craigmurray.org.uk. Follow @JehronMuhammad on X, formerly Twitter
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