S
outh Africa’s impressive International Court of Justice presentation accusing Israel of genocide is a significant turning point in a tragedy that started over 100 days ago, if not in the 75-year-old history of the occupation. Before the entire world, skillful and eloquent lawyers cited a lengthy list of facts pointing out that, since the Hamas attack of 7 October, Israel has been intentionally killing Palestinians by the thousands in operations not aimed at self-defence or targeting Hamas personnel.
South Africa’s legal team provided dozens of statements made by senior Israeli officials, starting with the prime minister, the defence minister and the president, along with extremist right wing ministers topped by Itamar Ben Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich and Amichay Eliyahu all confirming the intention to massively and arbitrarily kill the Palestinian people and terminate their presence in the Gaza Strip.
What else would be the result of Heritage Minister Eliyahu’s proposal to drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza to punish them for the 7 October attack? How would Smotrich’s pipe dream of leaving only 100,000 to 200,000 Palestinians in Gaza be achieved without killing the rest of the 2.3 million residents of the narrow Strip or forcibly displacing them to other countries, starting with Egypt’s Sinai?
Along with his cabinet ministers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for decades spoken and acted recklessly, knowing that their official sponsor, the United States government, would always have their back at international platforms, starting with the United Nations Security Council.
Yet, all this came to an end at ICJ in The Hague on 11 January. South Africa’s case, backed by the hundreds of millions who for three months have been demonstrating relentlessly all over the world calling for an immediate end of Israel’s aggression, was probably the last chapter in the myth of Israel as a victim surrounded by savage populations eager to bring its existence to an end.
Even if mainstream media in the US and Europe maintain their classic bias for Israel, censoring horrific videos and images that confirm and document crimes committed daily by the Israeli army and repeating its false allegations on the use of civilian infrastructure in Gaza by Hamas fighters, young people in the West have shunned such mouthpieces together with Israel’s permanent apologists. Instead, they can see the true extent of Israeli crimes against Palestinians on the far more popular social media platforms, even if those platforms themselves have been coming under tremendous pressure to ban the overwhelmingly more popular pro-Palestinian content and other evidence proving crimes committed by Israel’s army in Gaza.
Those crimes, according to South Africa’s case, backed by UN officials and all international humanitarian organisations, are not confined to daily, indiscriminate bombing of civilian buildings, UN offices, shelters, and hospitals, but also involve the intentional policy of starving the Palestinian people and placing them under siege, deprived from food, water, medicine and fuel. Thus, the vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza are now totally dependent on outside humanitarian aid, seriously facing the threat of famine. Those who do not die as a result of Israeli bombing from air, sea, and land, may die of starvation and the increasing spread of serious diseases.
While it came as no surprise that the Israeli defence team that presented its hollow case in front of the ICJ attempted to use all sorts of false claims and allegations to deny the crime of genocide in Gaza, the most ridiculous and laughable part in that presentation was the failed attempt to hold Egypt responsible for the delay in delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza, claiming that Israel’s side of the border has been “open.”
UN officials, along with prominent humanitarian organisations, have all been bitterly complaining of the strict Israeli procedures and repeated closure of their side of the border before allowing the humanitarian aid to reach Gaza. During lengthy negotiations ahead of adopting UN Security Council Resolution 1720 calling for speeding up the delivery of aid to Gaza on 18 December, Israel strongly resisted proposals by Egypt and other Arab countries to allow the UN alone to take control of the inspection process. Later, the Israeli delegate issued a statement thanking the United States yet again for not allowing the UN Security Council to cross Israel’s “red lines.”
Even if the borders were open, which has never been the case, the continuous, indiscriminate Israeli bombing of all parts of Gaza, in the north, centre and south, has made it impossible for UN workers and relief organisations to deliver much needed aid simply by restricting their movement.
Only one day after the Israeli defence team aired its lies in The Hague, The New York Times published a lengthy report on the tiresome and lengthy Israeli inspection procedures before allowing humanitarian aid in. The report quoted Democratic US Senator Chris Van Hollen, who visited Rafah on 9 January, calling the Israeli inspection process “totally arbitrary” and “cumbersome.”
He added that “aid officials say it can take hours for Israeli inspectors to comb through the trucks — and inspectors usually give no reason for refusing items. Even trucks whose contents are cleared in advance by Israeli officials, are sometimes turned back after inspection. If a single item is rejected, the truck must be sent back with its cargo and repacked to restart the inspection process.”
According to Senator Van Hollen: “Once trucks are cleared by Israel, they must receive a second green light from Egypt — in close coordination with Israel — to cross into Gaza. Israeli drones monitor trucks that are screened and waiting to cross, to make sure they do not violate an Israeli rule requiring that trucks be isolated after inspection to prevent new items from being added. A driver leaving the truck to get a cup of coffee while waiting could violate that rule.”
Egypt pledged to present all facts to the ICJ through diplomatic channels — no Israeli lies or allegations would ever manage to cover up the crimes its occupation army has been committing daily in Gaza for over 100 days.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 18 January, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
Short link: