“We have been waiting for this for a long time,” says Ammar Dweik, taking out a file from his leather bag. This Palestinian lawyer, who heads the independent human rights commission based in Ramallah, has just received the complaint for genocide filed by South Africa against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). A relentless indictment of 84 pages, illustrated by maps and statistical tables. It concludes that there were “genocidal acts and omissions” leading to the “destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group”.
“Israel has already killed or injured 4% of the population of Gaza,” says Ammar Dweik. “It’s enormous, but the crime of genocide is not only qualified by the number of victims. It also implies intention. However, Israel demonstrates this intention to bring about genocide in three ways: by massively bombing Gaza without sparing civilians, by creating the conditions for famine and by promoting the spread of disease.”
An accusation that scandalizes all Israelis
Examined this Thursday, January 11 by the ICJ in The Hague, the complaint finds no mitigating circumstances in Israel. Neither the massacres of October 7, nor the network of offensive tunnels built under Gazans’ homes, nor the thousands of rocket attacks towards Israeli localities. Suffice to say that the South African charge provokes the almost unanimous fury of Israelis, including among the fiercest critics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Clearly left-leaning, Deputy State Attorney Dina Zilber usually does not spare the current Israeli government and its “miserable” attempts to weaken the Supreme Court. But the accusation of genocide launched by South Africa seems scandalous to him. “Israel is simply exercising its right to defend itself, assures the magistrate. We have been victims of a massacre of incredible cruelty and we are waging a war against a terrorist movement which is hiding among its civilian population. The fact that there “The fact that there are many deaths does not in any way amount to the crime of genocide.”
According to the IDF, Israel intends to demonstrate to The Hague its respect for international conventions and its constant concern to protect populations used as human shields by Hamas militiamen. The Jewish state wants to counterattack and return the accusations of genocide against Hamas. On Wednesday, the day before the trial opened in The Hague, a website went online. Under the title “October 7, we haven’t seen anything yet”, it presents photos and documents considered damning for the terrorist movement. Mass killings, beheadings, desecration of corpses, systematic rapes accompanied by torture… Israel will use the ICJ to call world opinion to witness the cruelty of its enemy.
A prestigious judge to defend Israel
Famous daily editorialist Yediot Aharonot, Ben Dror Yemini now professes to denounce the Palestinian “lie factory”. “This accusation of genocide is not new, we have been hearing it for years,” said the journalist. “Genocide of the Palestinian people? Gaza and the West Bank are experiencing some of the highest population growth rates in the world. It’s grotesque. On the other hand, Hamas did commit genocide on October 7 by knowingly attacking civilians, which Israel has never done and will never do.”
To show the country’s unity in the face of accusations of genocide, Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Aharon Barak to sit on the ICJ on behalf of the Jewish state. A highly political choice: former president of the Supreme Court, Barak was for years the bête noire of the Israeli right and the incarnation of the omnipotence of judges. At 87 years old, this Holocaust survivor enjoys enormous prestige in Israel and abroad, where he is considered a leading jurist. A double or nothing for Israel, because a conviction for genocide would cause the country considerable diplomatic and economic damage. It would also embarrass the American ally, Israel’s indispensable support in its war against Hamas.