ICJ orders Palestinian protection measures following South Africa genocide application against Israel

Judge Joan E. Donoghue, the President of the Court, referring to the rhetoric of senior Israeli officials and to the destruction caused by the bombardment of the Gaza strip said there was sufficient evidence to conclude that the rights claimed by South Africa, as a signatory to the Genocide Convention were plausible.

On whether there was an urgent risk to irreparable damage prejudice to Palestinians’ rights to human life and other fundamental rights, she ruled that the situation was at serious risk of deteriorating further before the court delivers its final judgment on South Africa’s genocide case.

Ms. Donoghue said there was urgency and the conditions for provisional measures were met and ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent killing members of a group, causing serious mental harm, inflicting measures with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part a group, and of opposing measures to prevent births within the group.

She said Israel must ensure its military does not commit any of these acts, which are in breach of the genocide act, and must prevent and punish incitement to commit genocide.

Ms. Donoghue also ordered that Israel take steps to ensure services and the conditions of life were made available to the Palestinian people and to prevent the destruction of and ensure the preservation of evidence of alleged war crimes.

Israel must also submit a report on its efforts to give effect to the order within one month, said Ms. Donoghue, who declared the order had binding effect.

She advised that the court order was without prejudice to its final judgment on South Africa’s genocide case against Israel.

She read the Court’s Order at the Peace Palace in The Hague on Friday.

Last month South Africa filed an application instituting proceedings against Israel concerning alleged violations by Israel of its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the ‘Genocide Convention’) in relation to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

South Africa requested the Court indicate provisional measures in order to ‘protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention’ and ‘to ensure Israel’s compliance with its obligations under the Genocide Convention not to engage in genocide, and to prevent and to punish genocide’.

Earlier this month Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, an Irish barrister who worked for a legal firm representing the Bloody Sunday families during the Saville inquiry, told the ICJ Israel’s bombardment of Gaza was ‘the first genocide in history where its victims are broadcasting their own destruction in real time’.

She said: "The international community continues to fail the Palestinian people, despite the overt dehumanising genocidal rhetoric by Israeli governmental and military officials, matched by the Israeli military’s actions on the ground.”

Dr. Tal Becker, legal adviser of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, rejected the claims of genocide. He told the court: “The attempt to weaponise the term genocide against Israel in the present context, does more than tell the Court a grossly distorted story, and it does more than empty the word of its unique force and special meaning.”

War crimes must be stopped and international community must prevent genocide