Can Israel Ignore World Court's Order? Experts Weigh in on ICJ Genocide Case
Summary
TLDRThe International Court of Justice ruled that Israel should prevent further loss of life in Gaza, citing a 'plausible risk' of genocide against Palestinians. The court ordered provisional measures but stopped short of demanding an immediate ceasefire. The ruling referenced statements by Israeli officials demonizing Palestinians and calling for their destruction. It also noted the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza - lack of food, water, healthcare. While the court said Israel has taken some steps, these are 'insufficient to remove the risk' of irreparable harm before a final ruling. Israel dismissed the genocide claim but participated in the proceedings, showing the decision's significance.
Takeaways
- π³ The International Court of Justice ruled that Israel has plausibly committed genocide in Gaza based on intent and actions.
- π’ The humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic - lack of food, water, healthcare with deaths expected to increase.
- βοΈ The ICJ ordered Israel to prevent further genocide under international law though didn't call for immediate ceasefire.
- π Israel's Defense Minister referred to Palestinians as 'animals' and compared Hamas to ISIS, evidence of genocidal intent per the ruling.
- π€ Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected the genocide accusation and said Israel has a right to self-defense.
- π The ICJ noted Israel's steps to alleviate conditions in Gaza are 'insufficient' to prevent further loss of life.
- πͺπΌ The 2004 ICJ ruling declaring the separation wall illegal led to the BDS movement when the international community failed to enforce it.
- π¬ The ruling establishes a risk of Israel committing genocide - both in statements of genocidal intent and in actions on the ground.
- πΊπΈ A lawsuit in the U.S. calls on Biden to halt military aid to Israel based on legal duty to prevent genocide.
- π± The ICJ emphasized the extreme vulnerability of Palestinians in Gaza, with humanitarian collapse expected soon.
Q & A
What did the UN Secretary General warn about in his December 2023 letter regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza?
-The UN Secretary General warned about the healthcare system in Gaza collapsing, public order breaking down completely due to desperate conditions, and a severe risk of the collapse of the entire humanitarian system.
What statement did the UN Relief Agency Commissioner General make after his January 2024 visit to Gaza?
-He stated that 'every time I visit Gaza I witness how people have sunk further into despair with the struggle for survival consuming every hour'.
How many deaths and injuries did the ICJ state resulted from Israel's military operation in Gaza since October 2023?
-The ICJ stated Israel's military operation resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries.
What vital infrastructure did the ICJ say was destroyed in Gaza by Israel's military operation?
-The ICJ noted the destruction of homes, schools, medical facilities and other vital infrastructure in Gaza.
What percentage of women giving birth in Gaza are expected to experience complications according to the World Health Organization?
-The World Health Organization estimated that 15% of women giving birth in Gaza are likely to experience complications.
What did the ICJ state many Palestinians in Gaza currently lack access to?
-The ICJ stated many Palestinians lack access to basic foodstuffs, portable water, electricity, essential medicines, heating.
What warning did the ICJ issue regarding the humanitarian situation deteriorating further?
-The ICJ warned that the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza is at serious risk of deteriorating further before the court renders its final judgment.
What steps did the ICJ note Israel has taken regarding Gaza's humanitarian crisis?
-The ICJ noted Israel stated it has taken some steps to address and alleviate the conditions faced by Gazans.
What did Israel's Attorney General recently state regarding calls for intentional harm to civilians?
-Israel's Attorney General stated such calls may amount to criminal offenses including incitement.
What did the ICJ rule was insufficient regarding Israel's stated steps to help Gazans?
-The ICJ ruled such steps were insufficient to remove the risk of irreparable prejudice before the court issues its final decision.
Outlines
π‘ ICJ Finds Plausible Risk of Israeli Genocide in Gaza; U.S. Must Act
The International Court of Justice rules there is a plausible risk Israel is committing genocide in Gaza based on statements by Israeli officials and the scale of killing and destruction. The court calls on Israel to prevent further acts of genocide though it's expected Israel will ignore the ruling. There are implications for U.S. support of Israel, with a case in California citing the U.S.'s obligation to prevent genocide under international law.
π‘ Global BDS Movement Must Grow to End Israeli Impunity
Israel will likely disregard the ICJ ruling so it becomes critical to bring it to the UN Security Council for enforcement. In the meantime, the global BDS movement calling for boycotts, divestment and sanctions of Israel must expand to finally end Israeli impunity.
π‘ Ruling Quotes Horrific Humanitarian Conditions in Gaza
The ICJ ruling extensively quotes UN officials describing the horrific humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza - lack of food, water, medicine, hygiene, hospitals, homes. The court says Israel's evacuation orders further the conditions leading to physical destruction of Palestinians.
π‘ Gaza Population Extremely Vulnerable; Israel Steps Insufficient
The ICJ notes the Gaza population remains extremely vulnerable despite some steps by Israel. The humanitarian situation risks deteriorating further before the court's final judgment. Maternal mortality expected to rise without medical access.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘genocide
π‘International Court of Justice (ICJ)
π‘ceasefire
π‘humanitarian crisis
π‘displacement
π‘genocidal intent
π‘self-defense
π‘impunity
π‘BDS movement
π‘war crimes
Highlights
The ICJ found a plausible risk of Israel committing genocide in Gaza and ordered measures to stop it.
The ICJ president quoted Israel's defense minister calling Palestinians 'animals' and comparing Hamas to ISIS.
The ICJ emphasized Israel's statements of genocidal intent by leaders over time as an indicator of genocide.
The ICJ called Israel's evacuation orders genocidal to displace and bomb Palestinians under siege.
The ICJ described catastrophic conditions in Gaza from the blockade with growing deaths.
The UN warned of collapsing healthcare, lack of food and water, and risk of epidemics in Gaza.
The ICJ said Israel's steps are insufficient to remove the risk of irreparable harm in Gaza.
The US faces growing pressure on its duty to prevent genocide and cut military aid to Israel.
A lawsuit in the US cites the ICJ ruling to block further US aid facilitating Israel's acts.
Netanyahu rejected the ICJ genocide claim as false and outrageous.
The ICJ quoted the UN that the Gaza humanitarian system faces collapse with huge implications.
The UN warned of a severe risk of the situation deteriorating into a catastrophe in Gaza.
The UN said maternal and newborn death rates will increase in Gaza due to lack of healthcare.
The ICJ said tens of thousands have been killed, injured, displaced in Gaza amid the destruction.
Israel's PM said the months-long war in Gaza will continue regardless of the ICJ decision.
Transcripts
here on Democracy Now democracynow.org
the waren peace report I am Amy Goodman
the international court of justice the
un's highest court has found a plausible
risk Israel's committing genocide in
Gaza and ordered provisional measures
but stop short of calling for an
immediate ceasefire this is the
president of the Court Joan Donahue
reading out the vote of part of the
ruling by 15 votes to two the state of
Israel shall in accordance with its
obligations under the convention on the
prevention and Punishment of the crime
of genocide in relation to the
Palestinians in Gaza take all measures
within its power to prevent the
commission of all acts within the scope
of article two of the convention in
particular a killing members of the
group b causing serious bodily or mental
harm to members of the group C
deliberately inflicting on the group
conditions of life calculated to bring
about its physical destruction in whole
or in part and D imposing measures
intended to prevent births within the
group over a one-hour ruling the
international court of justice president
Joan donah who in the hay quoted
Israel's defense minister yav Galant
saying that as the war got underway
Galant had said we have removed all
restraints we will eliminate everything
referring to Palestinians as animals
judge Donahue continued Galant went on
to describe Hamas as comparable to the
Islamic State after proceedings
concluded today the South African
government said it welcomed the icj's
decision uh we're continuing with our
guests right now Dian buhu Palestinian
human rights attorney in hia Israel RZ
seagull Israeli historian and professor
of Holocaust and genocide studies
Stockton University joining us from
Philadelphia and Mahmud mandani
professor of government at Columbia
University specializing in the study of
colonialism di Buu if you can talk about
um what exactly the Tim table is right
now and the true level of enforcement um
that the icj or even the United Nations
overall has and go back to using as a
reference your involvement with the 2004
decision where the icj ruled the
separation wall that Israel built in the
occupied territories
illegal well let's first start with this
particular case I think it's important
to keep in mind that uh just last week
prime minister netan said that nothing
is going to stop him not the icj not the
heg nobody is going to stop him and that
he's going to continue to pursue ahead
and of course the reason he's doing this
is um in part because he is genocidal
and in large part because he knows that
that uh the minute that the that his the
attacks on Gaza are over that his um his
term in office is also over because of
the internal descent inside Israel and
the reason that this is important is
because it's it's I we haven't heard yet
what Israel's going what they've said
but judging by that it means that
they're going to ignore this ruling and
if they ignore this ruling it then
becomes imperative um upon the member
states to take this decision to the UN
Security Council to have the ruling
enforced at the security Council level
and it becomes really a question of
whether the United States is going to
veto or abstain or what exactly it's
going to do I can tell you in terms of
what happened in 204 2004 was a very
different case it was an advisory
opinion uh it wasn't a case in of the
same type and in 2004 Israel took the
exact same position that it wasn't going
to stop the construction of the wall in
fact it accelerated it and uh but part
of the decision indicated that there are
there are other states third States
other countries that are also obliged to
make sure that Israel upholds
international law and that was the part
that the where the world failed and out
of that this is where we saw the BDS the
boycott divestment sanctions movement
ended up being recreated or
reconstituted um on the one-year
anniversary of the icj ruling so in 2005
and the reason that it came together was
because they expected we expected that
the world was going to come forward and
do something to make sure that the
advisory opinion was upheld and enforced
but instead they did nothing so once
again we're going to see that we will
likely see that Israel is going to
ignore this ruling it's then imperative
to take it to to the UN Security Council
but all the while it's very important
that we continue the to boycott Israel
to divest from Israel and to push for
sanctions that the global BDS movement
should be growing at this point to make
sure that the age of Israeli impunity
finally comes to an end R seagull um if
you can talk about uh the aspects of
genocide you write the crime of genocide
as two elements
intention and execution and what Joan
Donahue the head of the court at least
for another few weeks um read in terms
of the decision for uh what constitutes
genocide and what this NE means as an
Israeli historian who lives in the
United States while Israel um tried to
say this doesn't matter the fact is they
participated in this clearly showing it
matters a great deal to them and also
what it means for the United States
support for Israel and what's happening
today with this court
finding yeah so I think that it was very
important that uh uh the court uh um
quoted uh some of the statements of
intent and it's it's again important to
emphasize that we're talking about
dozens of statements of intent to
destroy Palestinians intent to destroy
in the language of the UN convention uh
and by people with what's called an
international law command Authority so
State leaders War cabinet ministers
senior army officers and these
statements were made over time so not
just a week or two after the 7th of
October Hamas Le attack but over time
actually until today when we think about
what uh uh prime minister netan said on
13th of January when he said that Israel
attack will continue whatever happens in
the heag he also reiterated uh the
portrayal of Palestinians uh as Nazis
for example right which is a basically a
mechanism of demonization a mechanism
that uh uh portrays all Palestinians uh
uh in Gaza as legitimate military
targets so these statements of intent
again dozens of statements over time by
people with command Authority filled
with demiz ing uh language right Human
animals monsters which historically we
know are indicators of genocide so I
think it was very significant that the
court um uh mentioned and quoted some of
these uh statements to emphasize that
it's not as uh Israel uh tried to argue
that it's not something that we can uh
disregard that it's actually a key
element of the crime uh of genocide and
we should be paying attention uh uh to
this this but then it also emphasized a
number of times actually the really
unprecedented scale of killing and
destruction uh on the ground the
catastrophic uh uh situation that
Palestinians are facing now um and in
this situ in this uh context I think
it's very important to say that the
court basically accepted uh South
Africa's argument that Israel's qu
evacuation orders are not actually as
Israel claimed humanitarian measures but
they're actually genocidal in essis then
there that means that they are meant
which is what they did to displace
millions of people almost two million
Palestinians well virtually almost all
the Palestinians uh in the Gaza Strip
and under uh uh intensive bombings and
we know that Israel also bombed
Palestinians fleeing on routs that it
designated as safe it also bombed
Palestinians in the southern part of the
strip uh early on which it designated as
safe and of course under the the
conditions of the total Siege where we
today indeed this this measure did what
it was intended to do right it created
famine it created the spread of
infectious uh disease uh it created a
population that has no access to clean
water has no fuel has no medical supply
it destroyed all the all the
universities in Gaza destroyed a
majority of the hospitals it destroyed
agricultural land it targeted cultural
uh uh sites everything that we know
historically that happens uh uh in
genocide um and with this this massive
displacement that is now we know that
even if the Israel's attack stops now
many many Palestinians will continue to
die of these conditions of life again if
to quote the convention that Israel
deliberately created in order to bring
about the physical destruction of the
group in whole or in part so I thought
that it was very important that the
ruling actually quoted and emphasized
both issues of intent and the uh
dynamics of violence and the conditions
uh um that we see now on the ground this
is very very significant again the court
is saying that it there is plausibility
that Israel is likely commit has
committed and is committing acts of
genocide in Gaza and what this means for
the United States Professor
seagull yeah well I mean uh um and that
the deliverer of the message of course
the head the court is an
American yeah I think that
uh you know it's difficult it's
difficult to say and I'm you know I'm
curious uh to see how the US state will
respond I think that I'm very curious to
see as I said in the next few hours I
mean beginning at noon uh uh today
eastern time the case in California
right uh uh because now the judge there
has the icj ruling so the judge knows
that the world court has ruled that
Israel is likely committing uh genocide
I think that uh um I think that there
will be growing pressure uh also on the
US in this sense um it's it's difficult
to to to say what the US will do but we
do know actually that in the in Europe
there are more and more States not not
Germany but more and more states that uh
uh have already said and will in various
ways need to abide uh by the court
ruling which may be very significant in
terms of obstructing arms deals refusing
to facilitate transfer of arms to Israel
through uh Europe and various other
measures uh uh um you know I think that
as I said before and any company any
University any state around the world
now right knows that Israel is likely
committing genocide so the isolation of
Israel and I hope that we'll also be
seeing more and more calls for direct
cutting of TI with Israel academic
boycotts uh uh in the US uh so while the
US state will definitely try you know to
ignore uh the rolling uh and we already
see the headline in New York Times today
right now by the way if people are
following right which which frames this
as the court did not issue an order for
ceasefire right which which ineff it
actually did because if it you know as
as professor mamdani said if it ordered
right that Israel should cease from
genocidal acts if it ordered that Israel
should facilitate the entry of
humanitarian Aid it actually said you
have to cease fire because otherwise
there's no ways of doing that right so
the I think that the US if to judge by
the New York Times right now will try to
ignore this uh as much as possible but I
think that the pressure is going to be
we're just the beginning of the pressure
building uh up on this issue um so I
think we we we might see some
significant moves on on this front as
well the court case you're referring to
in Oakland today which will be fueled by
the international court of justice um uh
response from the ha the center for
constitutional rights brought the
lawsuit against President Biden accusing
him of failing to follow his obligations
under International and US law to
prevent the genocide in Gaza the
complaint brought on behalf of
Palestinians including res idents of
Gaza um who are asking a federal court
uh asking a federal court to let's see
if I can read this um a federal court to
intervene uh to block Biden US Secretary
of State Anthony blinkin and defense
secretary Lloyd Austin from providing
further military funding arms and
diplomatic support to Israel Katherine
Gallagher a senior attorney for the
center of Constitution U rights and one
of the lawyers who brought the case said
in a statement the United States has a
clear and binding obligation to prevent
not further genocide so far they've
failed in both their legal moral duty
and considerable power to end this
horror they must do so now that's the
court case that's happening in a few
hours in Oakland I also wanted to read
the response of prime minister Benjamin
Netanyahu I'm reading from an article in
hararat the Israeli newspaper
he said the decision by the icj quote
rightly rejected the outrageous demand
to deny Israel the right to basic
self-defense to which it's entitled as a
country according to him quote the very
claim that Israel's committing genocide
against Palestinians is not just false
it's outrageous and the Court's
willingness to discuss it at all is a
mark of disgrace that will not be erased
for Generations I want to go back to
Professor mdan but first play more of
the uh Court decision as read out by the
chief judge of the international court
of justice Joan
Donahue during the ongoing conflict
senior United Nations officials have
repeatedly called attention to the risk
of further deterioration of conditions
in the Gaza Strip the court takes note
for instance of the letter dated 6th
December 202 3 whereby the Secretary
General of the United Nations brought
the following information to the
attention of the security Council I
quote the Health Care system in Gaza is
collapsing nowhere is safe in Gaza amid
constant bombarding by the Israel
Defense Forces and without shelter or
the essentials to survive I expect
public order to break to completely
breakdown soon due to the desperate
conditions rendering even limited
humanitarian assistance impossible an
even worse situation could unfold
including epidemic diseases and
increased pressure for Mass displacement
into neighboring
countries we are facing a severe risk of
collapse of the humanitarian system the
situation is fast deteriorating into a c
catastrophe with potentially
irreversible implications for
Palestinians as a whole and for peace
and Security in the regon region such an
outcome must be avoided at at all costs
end of
quote on 5 January 2024 the Secretary
General wrote again to the security
Council providing an update on the
situation in the Gaza Strip and
observing that I quote sadly devastating
levels of death and destruction continue
end of quote the court also takes note
of the 17 January 2024 statement issued
by the unra commissioner General upon
return from his fourth visit to the Gaza
Strip since the beginning of the current
conflict in Gaza I quote every time I
visit Gaza I witness how people have
sunk further into despair with the
struggle for survival consuming every
hour end of
quote the court considers that the
civilian population in the Gaza Strip
remains extremely vulnerable it recalls
that the military operation conducted by
Israel after 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
court notes that the operation is
ongoing and that the prime minister of
Israel announced on 18 January 2024 that
the War I quote will take many more long
months end of quote at present many
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have no
access to the most basic food stuffs
portable water electricity essential
medicines or
heating the World Health Organization
has estimated that
15% of the women giving birth in Gaza
Strip are likely to experience
complications and indicates that
maternal and newborn death rates are
expected to increase due to the lack of
access to Medical
Care in these circumstances the court
considers that the catastrophic
humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip
is at serious risk of deteriorating
further before the court renders its
final
judgment the court recalls Israel's
statement that it has taken certain
steps to address and alleviate the
conditions faced by the population in
the Gaza Strip the court further notes
that the Attorney General of Israel
recently stated that a call for for
intentional harm to civilians May amount
to a criminal offense including that of
incitement and that several such cases
are being examined by Israeli law
enforcement authorities while such steps
are to be encouraged they are
insufficient to remove the risk that
irreparable prejudice will be caused
before the court issues its final
decision in the case Joe Joan Donahue is
the chief judge of the international
court of justice
the un's highest court reading out the
decision of the icj at the
hag
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