South Africa Files Case Against Israel at International Court of Justice over "Genocidal" Gaza War

this news is funded by viewers like you please support our work at democracynow.org this is democracy Now democracynow.org the Warr and peace report I'm Amy Goodman in New York joined by democracy Now co-host Juan Gonzalez in Chicago hi Juan happy news year happy New Year to you Amy uh and uh and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world as the death toll from Israel's bombardment of Gaza since the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel now exceeds 22,000 South Africa's filed a case at the international court of justice in the ha accusing Israel of genocide and trying to quote destroy Palestinians in Gaza this comes as the separate international criminal court is already investigating alleged war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas in its filing to the icj the main judicial body for the United Nations South Africa says quote the acts and omissions by Israel complained of by South Africa are genocidal in character because they're intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national racial and ethnical group unquote South Africa accused Israel of violating the 1948 convention on the prevention and punish ment of the crime of genocide which Israel Israel has signed on to Israel responded by calling the charge quote without legal Merit the Israeli foreign Ministry accused South Africa of quote collaborating with a terrorist group that calls for Israel's Annihilation unquote South African president siril Raposa has compared Israel's treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories to the racist system of apartate in his own country which ended in 1994 after nearly half a century in November Raposa responded to Israel's assault on Gaza by recalling South Africa's diplomats from Israel the collective punishment of Palestinian civilians through the unlawful use of force by Israel is a war crime the deliberate denial of medicine fuel food and water to the residence of Gaza is tantamount to genocide meanwhile in October South African lawmaker and the grandson of Nelson Mandela and kosy Mandela joined a Palestinian solidarity protest in Cape Town Palestinians are counting on each and every one of us to stand and be counted like they stood side by side with us in the trenches when we fought to liberate our country for more we're joined by Francis Bole professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law he previously applied the genocide convention for Bosnia and won two requests for provisional protection from the icj against Yugoslavia and thinks the same could apply here his books include the Bosnian people charged genocide as well as Palestine Palestinians and international law and World politics human rights and international law professor Bole welcome back to democracy now it's good to have you with us in this new year but under very serious circumstances if you can explain why it's South Africa that's bringing this charge and what exactly is the international uh court of justice where it fits into the world justice system and talk about the charge of genocide well thank you very much much for having me on Amy my best TI listening uh audience uh not to toot my own horn here but uh I was the first lawyer ever to win anything under the genocide convention from the international court of justice uh that goes back to uh 1921 I single-handedly won two World court orders for the Republic of Bosnia herzo against Yugoslavia uh to and his this from committing all acts of genocide and based on my careful review of all the documents so far submitted by the Republic of South Africa uh I believe South Africa will win an order against Israel to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide uh against the Palestinians and then we will have an official determination by the international court of justice itself the highest uh legal Authority in the United Nations system that genocide is going on and under article one of the genocide convention all Contracting parties 153 States will then be obliged quote to prevent unquote the genocide by Israel against the Palestinians second when the world Court gives this cease and desist order against Israel the Biden Administration will stand condemned under article 3 paragraph e of the genocide convention that criminalizes complicity in genocide and clearly we know that the Biden Administration has been aiding and edding Israeli genocide against the Palestinians here for quite some time uh this uh uh has also been raised by my friends in the center for constitutional rights uh and in uh the national lawyers Guild in a lawsuit uh against Biden blinkin and uh and Austin so I believe uh we will be able to use uh the the world court order uh the right now my source tell me the hearing will be January 11 January 12 based on my experience with the bosnians uh we can expect an order uh within a week I would also say with respect to the Biden Administration uh they are currently in violation of the genocide convention implementation act that makes genocide a crime uh under United States law and again once we uh South Africa wins this order uh the Biden Administration also uh will stand in violation of the genocide convention implementation act so I believe this is where uh we will be going uh between now I would say and and the end of this month and it is up to all of us as American citizens to figure out and support uh uh what South Africa is doing at the international court of justice here and Francis bo uh what's the difference between the international court of justice and the international criminal court which is already considering allegations of war crimes by both Israel as well as the Palestinian militant groups right Juan the international court of justice was originally established back in uh 1921 its predecessor legal predecessor in law uh and that is where I filed the uh genocide case I was the first lawyer ever uh to win two orders in one such case since the world Court was founded in uh 1921 and it was on the basis of the genocide convention the international uh Criminal Court is a separate uh uh International Organization uh set up in uh 2000 the problem one is this back in 2009 after operation cast Le I advis Palestinian president mammad abas to accept the jurisdiction of the international Court of the international criminal court for Palestine which he did I regret to report that the international criminal court has not done one darn thing to help the Palestinians since 2009 the international criminal court has all the blood of the Palestinian people on its hands since 2009 and one that is why uh uh we set up a campaign uh to F to find a state willing to file a lawsuit at the international court of justice uh the world Court uh the IC basically uh operates at the behest of its funders and Founders and Masters which is the US the NATO States the European States uh Etc until their uh expedited uh indictment of uh President Putin as uh us NATO lawfare against Russia the international criminal court had not indicted one American one European one Brit one NATO uh Citizen and one Israeli uh and one white person so uh we've gone we have a campaign now uh to support the Republic of South Africa at the international court of justice uh and we are asking we're starting this campaign today I'm part of a coalition uh we're starting this campaign today today to get members of the genocide convention to file Declarations of intervention at the world Court in support and solidarity uh with with South Africa uh against Israel and in support of the uh Palestinians that uh material hopefully will go out today France I wanted to ask you though Joan Donahue is the the president of the international court of justice she previously worked in the US state department how do you think she will approach South Africa's application what what power does she have to shape the proceedings that's a good question uh ju yes Donna Hugh is a lifelong career-long US state department legal opach which is how she got the job and uh I'm sure she's in contact right now today with the US state department giving them uh a heads up on everything going on over there at the ha behind the scenes uh she will tow the state department Party Line uh in these proceedings I regret to report the president does have a lot of power there uh uh to shape these uh proceedings I suspect she will use that power uh to shape the proceedings if in favor of Israel however I have also been advised that the uh Republic of South Africa is as of now nominating a judge ad hoc uh that is their right under the uh statute of the international court of justice I I don't have a name yet but I would hope the uh South African judge ad Hawk uh will do his or her best to to try to to keep uh Donahue uh straight I want to go back to South Africa um who has done this genocide filing in 2008 I had the opportunity to speak with the South African anti apartate icon the Nobel Peace laurat Archbishop Desmond Tutu I caught up with him at the South African Vice council's apartment in New York right before Archbishop tutu received the Global Citizens Circle award I asked him about Palestine would you compare the occupation of Gaza and pal of Gaza and the West Bank to apart date South Africa I I have to speak about what I know I mean uh most people a Jew will usually speak about their experiences and maybe compare whatever it is that is happening with what happened um uh in the days of the Holocaust for me coming from South Africa and going I mean and looking at the at the checkpoints and and the arrogance of those young soldiers probably scared maybe covering up the the apprehension that there was there's no no no way in which I couldn't say course that is that is the truth it reminds me it reminds me of the kind of experiences uh uh that we underwent so that was Archbishop Desmond 22 uh Francis Bole talk about the significance of it being South Africa and what it means for one state to bring a charge against another state um who are signatories here and um how binding is this explain what happened for example in Bosnia sure uh well first the uh connection there with uh the late uh great uh Archbishop uh tutu the current lead Council now in the lawsuit for South Africa is professor John Dugard a longtime friend of mine uh Professor Dugard was one of the uh very few courageous white professors of international law who internationally opposed the criminal apar system in South Africa at risk to his life second later on uh Professor Dugard uh became un special rapor for uh Palestine I read uh all of his reports uh they are uh excellent uh Professor dugard's heart and are in the right place with the Palestinians and he is one of the top professors of international law uh in the world so there is a direct comparison between uh the Israeli apartheid system on all the Palestinians including Palestinian citizens uh of Israel and what happened in uh AP paride uh South Africa indeed Professor Dugard has written that the uh Israeli system of aarthi uh against the Palestinians is worse uh than the uh paride that the Afric coners applied to the U black people in South Africa I was involved in the uh struggle against uh up paride in South Africa and that is my assessment uh too indeed uh the parallels here then led me in November 2000 to call for the uh establishment in a speech the establishment of the divestment disinvestment campaign against Israel for the exact same reasons we had a divestment disinvestment campaign against the criminal aparti regime in South Africa and then in 2005 Palestinian Civil Society contacted me to go in with them on AA lishing the Palestinian boycott divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel against a paride Israel for the exact same reason we had a BDS campaign against the criminal aparti regime in South Africa so uh tutu uh Dugard I and uh I would Ram fosa uh the foreign minister uh in South Africa uh who's made very uh comp in speeches they all understand what's going on here and what's at stake the issue of genocide in Bosnia if you could explain for people who are not familiar um with what happened and then what came of um the charges at the international um court of justice yes well uh Yugoslavia exterminated about uh 200,000 uh bosnians uh raped about uh 40,000 uh Bosnian women I was the lawyer for all of them arguing their case at the international Court of uh justice and I won these uh uh two orders on 8 April 1993 and 13 September uh 1993 until I won that uh uh order 8 April 1993 uh everyone was denying that genocide was going on uh and once I won that order that was massive and overwhelming in favor of the bosnians uh no one could deny anymore that genocide was going on uh as for the uh Effectiveness uh when I walked out of the world court on a April 1993 uh and won that order I walked into the uh foyer there uh outside the grand courtroom the whole world news media were there and I said at the time uh the world court has just determined that genocide is going on in Bosnia and heroina under article one uh every state party to the genocide convention has an obligation to prevent genocide in Bosnia and I hereby uh request direct military intervention by the United States and the NATO states to save the bosnians from genocide later that day the United States and NATO announced that they were instituting a nfly Zone uh enforcing a no-fly zone uh over BOS so uh these orders by the world Court can have consequences and it will be up to us here in the United States to VI to devise the strategy for uh consequences for the Biden administration because we have to pressure the Biden Administration to order Israel to stop the genocide they will do what we Americans tell them to do in operation castled uh that had been going on for a period of time uh under President Bush Jr uh Obama the Obama people were coming into Power Obama was about to be inaugurated and in order not to spoil Obama's uh inauguration the United States government told Israel to stop operation castlet so we have to understand we here in the United States of America have the power to stop this but we have to figure out how to use the order that South Africa will win here in the United States of America this is exactly what happened in uh Nicaragua you remember uh Amy uh I was involved in advising almost every peace NGO and uh lawyer here in the United States on the uh legal issues with respect to Reagan's war against Nicaragua El Salvador Guatemala my teacher Menor and friend the late great AB Jays at Harvard Law School won a World court order against the Ragan Administration in 1984 and then also a final judgment on the merits in 1986 we here in the United States used that world court order and the final judgment to stop Reagan's war against Nicaragua regretfully uh regretfully 16,000 nicaraguans were killed including US citizen uh Ben Linder but we did stop that and I believe that with this world court order that South Africa uh will win we can stop what Israel is doing to the Palestinians Francis Bole professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law his books include the Bosnian people charge genocide side Palestine Palestinians and international law as well as World politics human rights and international law democracy Now is funded by viewers like you please give today at democracynow.org

Channel: Democracy Now!

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Length: 22min 44sec (1364 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 02 2024