Israel taps top legal minds, including a Holocaust survivor, to battle genocide claim at world court
Tel Aviv (AP): Israel is sending top legal minds, including a Holocaust survivor, to The Hague this week to counter allegations that it is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The robust engagement with the International Court of Justice is unusual for Israel, which normally considers the United Nations and international tribunals as unfair and biased. The decision to participate rather than boycott reflects Israeli concerns that the judges could order Israel to halt its war against Hamas and tarnish its image internationally.
"Israel cannot run away from an accusation that is so serious," said Alon Liel, a former director general of Israel's Foreign Ministry and a former Israeli ambassador to South Africa.
Israel, which as one of the parties in the case is entitled to send a judge, has tapped a former Israeli Supreme Court chief justice to join the court's 15 regular members who will rule on the accusation. It has also enlisted a British barrister and lauded international law expert as part of its defense team.
Israel hopes their expertise will trounce the South African claim that Israel's military campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide and prevent an interim court order to force Israel to stop the fighting. Israel says halting the war when Hamas' capabilities are intact in many places and with hostages still in its captivity would amount to a Hamas victory.
The genocide charge strikes at the heart of Israel's national identity. The country sees itself as a bulwark of security for Jews after 6 million were killed in the Holocaust. International support for Israel's creation in 1948 was deeply rooted in outrage over Nazi atrocities.
The same year, with Israel's involvement, world powers drew up the convention against genocide in hopes of preventing similar atrocities.
Israel's unprecedented air, ground and sea offensive has killed more than 23,200 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, according to health officials in Hamas-run Gaza. Israel's military campaign has displaced roughly 85 per cent of Gaza's 2.3 million population, many with no homes to return to. More than a quarter of the population is starving.
South Africa, which has long been a critic of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, launched the case at the United Nations' top court in The Netherlands. Many South Africans compare Israel's policies toward Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank with their own country's former apartheid regime of racial segregation.
Israel vehemently disputes the genocide claims, saying it is fighting a war of self-defense after Hamas launched its October 7 attack on southern Israel. Israel says its actions comply with international law and that it does its best to prevent harm to civilians, blaming Hamas for embedding in residential areas.
South Africa's 84-page filing says Israel's actions, including killing Palestinians and causing serious mental and bodily harm, "are genocidal in character." It says Israeli officials have expressed genocidal intent.
The case will likely drag on for years. But South Africa's filing includes a request for the court to urgently issue legally binding interim orders for Israel to "immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza."
Abiding by such a ruling would be politically costly for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with Israelis still largely supportive of the war. Israel would also fall short of its declared goal of crushing the enemies.
If it doesn't abide, Israel could face UN sanctions. Although the US, Israel's closest ally, could veto such a move, doing so would anger many Democrats who have already soured on President Joe Biden over his strong support for Israel in the war. That could be damaging for Biden as he seeks reelection. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Tuesday that the case is "meritless."
Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, criticised South Africa, saying it was giving Hamas political and legal cover.
"We are appalled that South Africa has chosen to play advocate for the devil," he said.
An Israeli official said Israel agreed to cooperate with the court because it is confident it will prevail. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the matter with the media. Israel boycotted a prominent case at the court in 2004 about its West Bank separation barrier, which the court ruled was "contrary to international law," saying the proceedings were politically motivated.
Israel chose Aharon Barak a mainstay of the country's legal world for decades to join the panel of international judges. A former attorney general and peace negotiator who served as chief justice of Israel's highest court from 1995-2006, Barak has ruled in cases related to Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.
The internationally renowned 87-year-old has received honorary degrees from multiple universities, including Yale and Oxford.
British lawyer Malcolm Shaw, who will defend Israel, is the author of what's seen as the definitive textbook on international law. He has represented numerous states, including Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates, in international litigation, including at the International Court of Justice, according to a biography posted online by Essex Court Chambers, where Shaw is a barrister.
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China starts new drills in Taiwan Strait against ‘separatist forces’
Beijing (PTI): China on Monday launched massive military drills in the middle areas of the Taiwan Strait as a “punitive and deterrent” action against Taiwan’s separatist forces, days after the US announced a record USD 11.1 billion arms sales to Taipei.
The two drills, in which a host of advanced fighter jets, long-range rockets and naval ships are involved, came amid rising diplomatic tensions with Japan over Taiwan that Beijing claims as its territory.
"The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command is employing fighters, bombers and unmanned aerial vehicles in coordination with long-range rocket fires to conduct drills in the waters and airspace in the middle areas of the Taiwan Strait on Monday," a Chinese military announcement said.
China has been conducting high-intensity military exercises around Taiwan since 2022, following then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei.
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This is the sixth such drill. These exercises are widely interpreted as rehearsals for military action against the self-governing island which Beijing claims as part of its mainland.
The drills are a punitive and deterrent action against separatist forces who seek “Taiwan independence” through military build-up, and a necessary move to safeguard China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a media briefing here.
Nothing will deter China from defending national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity. Anyone who crosses the line or makes provocations on the question will be met with China’s firm response. All attempts to hold back China’s reunification will invariably fail, he said.
Asked whether the drills were in retaliation to the US record arms sales to Taiwan, Lin said, “Anyone who crosses the line or makes provocations on the question will be met with China’s firm response”.
Taiwan condemned China's military drills, saying Beijing is using military intimidation to threaten neighbouring countries.
In its reaction to the drills Taiwan's Defence Ministry said in a post on X that rapid response exercises were underway, with forces on high alert to defend the island
In a separate statement, the ministry said it had deployed appropriate forces in response, conducting combat readiness drills.
Spokesperson for the Taiwanese president's office, Karen Kuo was quoted as saying that the drills undermined the stability and security of the Taiwan Strait and Indo-Pacific region and openly challenged international law and order.
A PLA statement said the drills focussed on striking mobile ground targets and intended to test the troops' capabilities of precision strikes on key targets.
The drills in which fighters, bombers, long range rockets and unmanned aerial vehicles will be used comes in the backdrop of the US approval of a record USD 11.1 billion arms package to Taipei which China sharply criticised and diplomatic tensions with Japan over Taiwan.
US President Donald Trump approved an arms package worth USD 11.1 billion for Taiwan, which, if cleared by the US Congress, would mark Washington's largest-ever arms sale to the island.
The arms sale aids Taiwan's independence forces' plans to turn the island into a powder keg, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a media briefing here on December 18, reacting to Trump's approval to the arms sale.
"China will take resolute and strong measures to defend its national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity," he said.
The arms sales to Taiwan comes in the backdrop of rising China-Japan tensions over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks in parliament on November 7 that a Taiwan contingency could be a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan that may lead to action from the country's defence forces in support of the US.
Her remarks angered China, which demanded Takaichi to retract her statement.
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China has also criticised Japan's move to develop the easternmost island of Okinawa for the deployment of a mobile surveillance radar unit to monitor Chinese aircraft carriers and airplanes.
The Japanese side kept strengthening targeted military deployment near Taiwan region and even claimed it will deploy mid-range missiles, he said.
This time, it went even further by deploying a radar unit and troops to secretly monitor its neighbour," Guo said.
"Given the erroneous and dangerous remarks made by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Taiwan, we must question: Is the Japanese side making trouble and provocations at one's doorstep to find a pretext for its military build-up and missions overseas," he said.
