The State of Israel introduced its response Friday to the accusation by South Africa on the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, Netherlands, that it was responsible of “genocide” towards Palestinians in Gaza due to its response to Hamas terror.
Israel argued that South Africa had distorted each Israeli coverage and the that means of the phrase “genocide,” such that no nation going through true genocidal terror, akin to the phobia assaults that Hamas carries out towards Israel, would ever have the ability to defend itself.
“If there had been acts that could be characterised as genocidal, then they’ve been carried out towards Israel,” authorized adviser Tal Becker instructed the ICJ in his opening presentation, displaying footage of a Hamas chief promising to repeat the October 7 assaults.
Becker stated that South Africa’s presentation went past the present battle and known as Israel’s very existence into query. As such, he stated, it was “barely distinguishable from Hamas’s personal rejectionist rhetoric,” which argued for genocide towards Israel.
Becker additionally confirmed the courtroom photos of the Israeli hostages nonetheless being held by Hamas, and requested whether or not they have been “unworthy of your safety.” He added that “Hamas is just not a celebration to those proceedings,” and that South Africa was making an attempt to defend Hamas.
He took South Africa to job for arguing that Israel had no proper of self-defense towards Hamas, noting this amounted to a protection of genocide.
“If the declare of the applicant now could be that within the armed battle between Israel and Hamas, Israel should be denied the flexibility to defend its residents, then the absurd upshot of South Africa’s argument is that this: below the guise towards Israel of the allegation of ‘genocide,’ this courtroom is known as to finish operations towards a company that pursues an precise genocidal agenda.”
Becker didn’t spare South Africa’s personal culpability, mentioning that the South African authorities had solely not too long ago hosted a delegation from Hamas, and stated it ought to be barred from persevering with to make use of rhetoric that inspired the destruction of Israel.
(Past the courtroom, the Instances of Israel famous, Israel adopted via on that message, accusing South Africa of supporting genocide “by supporting the terrorist group Hamas, which requires the elimination of the State of Israel.”)
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He famous that Hamas was liable for civilian struggling in Gaza, because it embedded its terrorists, their weapons, and their tunnels among the many civilian inhabitants, together with in faculties and hospitals, “actively sacrificing” them for army and propaganda functions.
Astonishingly, he stated, South Africa omitted that reality solely from its presentation, and introduced Palestinian casualty figures with out telling the courtroom what number of of these casualties have been terrorists who have been killed in battle, portray all as civilians.
All warfare, he identified, concerned unlucky civilian casualties. However there was a distinction between civilian casualties — lawful or illegal — and precise genocide, which concerned an intent to “destroy a individuals, in complete or partially,” which solely Hamas needed.
In the remainder of its presentation, Israel’s authorized representatives took aside the remainder of the South African case, which rested largely on quotes (and misquotes) of Israeli officers that, the South African legal professionals claimed, confirmed an intention to commit genocide.
Whereas claiming that “context” was needed to know the battle, Israeli consultant Malcom Shaw stated, South Africa had in actual fact obscured it: “To supply random quotes which aren’t in conformity with authorities coverage is deceptive at finest.”
Shaw additionally argued that South Africa had introduced the case improperly, evading the requirement of displaying that there was really a dispute between the events, and refusing to present Israel a possibility to reply, speeding as a substitute to courtroom to impose its case.
Different Israeli legal professionals identified that Israel’s makes an attempt to ship humanitarian support to Gaza disproved any declare of intent to commit genocide, and so they warned that the ICJ risked cheapening the time period, and weakening itself, if it discovered towards Israel.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Giant at Breitbart Information and the host of Breitbart Information Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He’s the writer of the 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and methods to be part of it),” now up to date with a brand new foreword. He’s additionally the writer of the current e-book, Neither Free nor Honest: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He’s a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Observe him on Twitter at @joelpollak.