MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Actually, everything that I expected happened. I wasn’t sure
they would call for a ceasefire. But now listening to the reasoning of the
court, it is clear to me that they couldn’t have called directly for a
ceasefire without preempting their future deliberations. At the same time, if
it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and sounds like a duck, then it’s a
duck. Everything they ordered in terms of preventive measures leads to only one
conclusion, which is ceasefire. How do you stop killing people? Ceasefire. How
do you ensure that supplies for human life get in? Ceasefire. And so on and so
forth.
It May be Genocide, But it Won’t Be Stopped (substack.com)
It May be Genocide, But it Won’t Be Stopped
The ruling by the International Court of Justice was a legal victory for South
Africa and the Palestinians, but it will not halt the slaughter.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) refused to implement the most crucial
demand made by South African jurists: “the State of Israel shall immediately
suspend its military operations in and against Gaza.” But at the same time, it
delivered a devastating blow to the foundational myth of Israel. Israel, which
paints itself as eternally persecuted, has been credibly accused of committing
genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Palestinians are the victims, not the
perpetrators, of the “crime of crimes.” A people, once in need of protection
from genocide, are now potentially committing it. The court’s ruling questions
the very raison d'être of the “Jewish State” and challenges the impunity Israel
has enjoyed since its founding 75 years ago.
The ICJ ordered Israel to take six provisional measures to prevent acts of
genocide, measures that will be very difficult if not impossible to fulfill if
Israel continues its saturation bombing of Gaza and wholesale targeting of
vital infrastructure.
The court called on Israel “to prevent and punish the direct and public
incitement to commit genocide.” It demanded Israel “take immediate and
effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services
and humanitarian assistance.” It ordered Israel to protect Palestinian
civilians. It called on Israel to protect the some 50,000 women giving birth in
Gaza. It ordered Israel to take “effective measures to prevent the destruction
and ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of acts within
the scope of Article II and Article III of the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide against members of the Palestinian group in
the Gaza Strip.”
The court ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent the
crimes which amount to genocide such as “killing, causing serious bodily and
mental harm, inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring
about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures
intended to prevent births within the group.”
Israel was ordered to report back in one month to explain what it had done to
implement the provisional measures.
Gaza was pounded with bombs, missiles and artillery shells as the ruling was
read in The Hague — at least 183 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24
hours. Since Oct. 7, more than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed. Almost
65,000 have been wounded, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Thousands more are missing. The carnage continues. This is the cold reality.
Translated into the vernacular, the court is saying Israel must feed and
provide medical care for the victims, cease public statements advocating
genocide, preserve evidence of genocide and stop killing Palestinian civilians.
Come back and report in a month.
It is hard to see how these provisional measures can be achieved if the carnage
in Gaza continues.
“Without a ceasefire, the order doesn’t actually work,” Naledi Pandor, South
Africa’s minister of international relations, stated bluntly after the ruling.
Time is not on the side of the Palestinians. Thousands of Palestinians will die
within a month. Palestinians in Gaza make up 80 percent of all the people
facing famine or catastrophic hunger worldwide, according to the United
Nations. The entire population of Gaza by early February is projected to lack
sufficient food, with half a million people suffering from starvation,
according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, drawing on data
from U.N. agencies and NGOs. The famine is engineered by Israel.
At best, the court — while it will not rule for a few years on whether Israel
is committing genocide — has given legal license to use the word “genocide” to
describe what Israel is doing in Gaza. This is very significant, but it is not
enough, given the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
Israel has dropped almost 30,000 bombs and shells on Gaza — eight times more
bombs than the U.S. dropped on Iraq during six years of war. It has used
hundreds of 2,000-pound bombs to obliterate densely populated areas, including
refugee camps. These “bunker buster” bombs have a kill radius of a thousand
feet. The Israeli aerial assault is unlike anything seen since Vietnam. Gaza,
only 20 miles long and five miles wide, is rapidly becoming, by design,
uninhabitable.
Israel will no doubt continue its assault arguing that it is not in violation
of the court’s directives. In addition, the Biden administration will
undoubtedly veto the resolution at the Security Council demanding Israel
implement the provisional measures. The General Assembly, if the Security
Council does not endorse the measures, can vote again calling for a ceasefire,
but has no power to enforce it.
Defense for Children International - Palestine v. Biden was filed in November
by the Center for Constitutional Rights against President Joe Biden, Secretary
of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. The case
challenges the U.S. government’s failure to prevent complicity in Israel’s
unfolding genocide of the Palestinian people. It asks the court to order the
Biden administration to cease diplomatic and military support and comply with
its legal obligations under international and federal law.
The only active resistance to halt the Gaza genocide is provided by Yemen’s Red
Sea blockade. Yemen, which was under siege for eight years by Saudi Arabia, the
United Arab Emirates, France, Britain and the U.S., experienced over 400,000
deaths from starvation, lack of health care, infectious diseases and the
deliberate bombing of schools, hospitals, infrastructure, residential areas,
markets, funerals and weddings. Yemenis know too well — since at least 2017
multiple U.N. agencies have described Yemen as experiencing “the largest
humanitarian crisis in the world” — what the Palestinians are enduring.
Yemen’s resistance — when the history of this genocide is written — will set it
apart from nearly every other nation. The rest of the world, including the Arab
world, retreats into toothless rhetorical condemnations or actively supports
Israel’s obliteration of Gaza and its 2.3 million inhabitants.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the U.S. has sent 230
cargo planes and 20 ships filled with artillery shells, armored vehicles and
combat equipment to Israel since the attacks of Oct. 7, in which some 1,200
Israelis were killed. U.S. weapons and military equipment are being shipped to
Israel — which is running out of munitions — from the British base RAF Akrotiri
in Cyprus, according to the U.K. investigative website Declassified UK. The
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that more than 40 U.S. and 20 British
transport aircraft, along with seven heavy-lift helicopters, have flown into
RAF Akrotiri, a 40-minute flight from Tel Aviv. Germany reportedly plans to
provide 10,000 rounds of 120mm precision ammunition to Israel. If the court
rules against Israel, these countries will be recognized by the world’s most
important international court as accomplices to genocide.
The ruling was dismissed by Israeli leaders.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seeking to paint the decision not to demand
a ceasefire as a victory for Israel, said “Like every country, Israel has an
inherent right to defend itself. The vile attempt to deny Israel this
fundamental right is blatant discrimination against the Jewish state, and it
was justly rejected. The charge of genocide leveled against Israel is not only
false, it’s outrageous, and decent people everywhere should reject it.”
“The decision of the antisemitic court in The Hague proves what was already
known: This court does not seek justice, but rather the persecution of Jewish
people,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said. “They were silent
during the Holocaust and today they continue the hypocrisy and take it another
step further.”
The ICJ was founded in 1945 following the Nazi Holocaust. The first case it
heard was submitted to the court in 1947.
“Decisions that endanger the continued existence of the State of Israel must
not be listened to,” Ben-Gvir added. “We must continue defeating the enemy
until complete victory.”
The court, which rejected Israel’s arguments to dismiss the case, acknowledged
“that the military operation being conducted by Israel following the attack of
7 October 2023 has resulted, inter alia, in tens of thousands of deaths and
injuries and the destruction of homes, schools, medical facilities and other
vital infrastructure, as well as displacement on a massive scale.”
The ruling included a statement made by the U.N. Under-Secretary-General for
Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, who on
Jan. 5, called Gaza “a place of death and despair.” The court document went on:
. . . Families are sleeping in the open as temperatures plummet. Areas where
civilians were told to relocate for their safety have come under bombardment.
Medical facilities are under relentless attack. The few hospitals that are
partially functional are overwhelmed with trauma cases, critically short of all
supplies, and inundated by desperate people seeking safety.
A public health disaster is unfolding. Infectious diseases are spreading in
overcrowded shelters as sewers spill over. Some 180 Palestinian women are
giving birth daily amidst this chaos. People are facing the highest levels of
food insecurity ever recorded. Famine is around the corner.
For children in particular, the past 12 weeks have been traumatic: No food. No
water. No school. Nothing but the terrifying sounds of war, day in and day out.
Gaza has simply become uninhabitable. Its people are witnessing daily threats
to their very existence — while the world watches on.
The court acknowledged that “an unprecedented 93% of the population in Gaza is
facing crisis levels of hunger, with insufficient food and high levels of
malnutrition. At least 1 in 4 households are facing ‘catastrophic conditions’:
experiencing an extreme lack of food and starvation and having resorted to
selling off their possessions and other extreme measures to afford a simple
meal. Starvation, destitution and death are evident.”
The ruling, quoting Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
(UNRWA), continued:
Overcrowded and unsanitary UNRWA shelters have now become ‘home’ to more than
1.4 million people,” the ruling read. “They lack everything, from food to
hygiene to privacy. People live in inhumane conditions, where diseases are
spreading, including among children. They live through the unlivable, with the
clock ticking fast towards famine.
The plight of children in Gaza is especially heartbreaking. An entire
generation of children is traumatized and will take years to heal. Thousands
have been killed, maimed, and orphaned. Hundreds of thousands are deprived of
education. Their future is in jeopardy, with far-reaching and long-lasting
consequences.
The court also referred pointedly to comments made by multiple senior Israeli
government officials advocating genocide, including the president and minister
of defense. Statements made by government and other officials form a crucial
element of the “intent” component when seeking to establish the crime of
genocide.
It quoted Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant who declared — two days after
the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7 — that he ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza
City with “no electricity, no food, no fuel” being permitted.
“I have released all restraints . . . You saw what we are fighting against. We
are fighting human animals. This is the ISIS of Gaza,” Gallant told Israeli
troops massing around Gaza the following day. “This is what we are fighting
against…Gaza won’t return to what it was before. There will be no Hamas. We
will eliminate everything. If it doesn’t take one day, it will take a week, it
will take weeks or even months, we will reach all places.”
The ICJ quoted Israel’s President Isaac Herzog as saying, “It is not true this
rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved. It is absolutely not true.
They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which
took over Gaza in a coup d’état. But we are at war. We are at war. We are
defending our homes.” Herzog continued “We are protecting our homes. That’s the
truth. And when a nation protects its home, it fights. And we will fight until
we’ll break their backbone.”
Today’s decision was read out by the ICJ’s current president, Judge Joan
Donoghue, an American lawyer who used to work at the U.S. State Department and
the Department of the Treasury before she joined the World Court in 2010.
“In the Court’s view, the facts and circumstances mentioned above are
sufficient to conclude that at least some of the rights claimed by South Africa
and for which it is seeking protection are plausible,” it read. “This is the
case with respect to the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from
acts of genocide and related prohibited acts identified in Article III, and the
right of South Africa to seek Israel’s compliance with the latter’s obligations
under the Convention.”
It is clear from the ruling that the court is fully aware of the magnitude of
Israel’s crimes. This makes the decision not to call for the immediate
suspension of Israeli military activity in and against Gaza all the more
distressing.
But the court did deliver a devastating blow to the mystique Israel has used
since its founding to carry out its settler colonial project against the
indigenous inhabitants of historic Palestine. It made the word genocide, when
applied to Israel, credible.
Chris Hedges
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