The International Court of Justice has announced that next week, on Jan. 11 and 12, [2024], South Africa’s request for interim measures against Israel, accused of genocide for the bombing that has been going on in Gaza for three months now, will be heard in public hearings.
In the complaint filed on Dec. 29, South Africa accuses Israel because the military operations in Gaza “are genocidal in character, since they are committed with the specific intent required … to eliminate Palestinians present in the [Gaza] Strip, to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such.”
South Africa refers to the December 9, 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, of which these are the first two articles:
Article I
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and punish.
Article II
In this Convention, genocide means each of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such:
1. (a) killing of members of the group;
(b) serious injury to the physical or mental integrity of members of the group;
(c) deliberately subjecting the group to conditions of life intended to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) measures aimed at preventing births within the group;
(e) forced transfer of children from the group to another [group].”
