The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on South Africa’s case for genocide
A brief summary
- Israel shall, in accordance with its obligations under Genocide Convention, take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts in scope of article 2 of the convention.
- Israel shall ensure with immediate effect that its military do not commit any acts in contravention of the previous point.
- Israel shall take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to genocide.
- Israel shall take immediate and effective measures to provide urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to people in Gaza.
- Israel should preserve evidence related to the possible commission of violations of the Genocide Convention.
- Israel shall submit a report on all measures taken to comply with these legally binding orders within a month.
A link to the ICJ ruling in more detail is here https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-sum-01-00-en.pdf
The interim judgement from the ICJ on Friday looked like good news, but it had little immediate effect apart from prompting denials and obfuscations. The statement from the Council for Arab-British Understanding https://www.caabu.org/news/press-release/caabu-press-release-uk-must-take-action-against-israel-after-icj-ruling sums up the initial reaction of a seasoned observer. But then, almost immediately, Israel made accusations about UNRWA.
UNRWA
UNRWA is the humanitarian NGO sent into Gaza and Palestine by the United Nations in 1949. Without it, Gaza would have been the site of a humanitarian disaster soon after Israel put it under siege, sixteen years ago.
Hours after the ICJ issued its interim report, Israel accused 12 of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees of being involved in the Hamas attack on October 7, releasing information they had been sitting on until the time was right. The UN was already investigating the allegations, and UNRWA had immediately sacked ten of those named (two were dead) even before the investigation began.
Several countries, including the UK, reacted by temporarily suspended further funding. However, our contribution is relatively insignificant, and suspending it won’t take effect until April, when the next instalment would be due. It isn’t clear what the point of the funding cuts is from the donors’ perspective. The UK contribution will be restored if there is a favourable outcome to the investigations, but what would count as ‘favourable’ hasn’t been specified by the government, nor is there any plan for an ‘unfavourable’ outcome. If it turns out that more than the 12 currently under suspicion were aware of the Hamas attack in advance, or took part in it, Israel may feel it has proved its allegation that “all the people in Gaza” are responsible for October 7, but donors run the risk that the funding cuts will affect the delivery of food and other vital aid. To penalise the population of Gaza for management failings in UNRWA would not only be plain wrong, it would make donors complicit in collective punishment, outlawed under the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Genocide Convention.
Government Policy Change
However, despite the poor initial effect of the ICJ report, yesterday the underlying tectonic plates began to move.
At the annual meeting of the Conservative Middle East Council (CMEC), the Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, made a bombshell announcement. He told his audience, which included representatives of Arab states and the UK Palestinian Envoy, Husam Zomlot, that the UK was willing to recognise the state of Palestine in advance of talks about the two-state solution. This has huge implications.
Israel’s current leaders don’t want to see a free state of Palestine, and if dragged into talks, would prefer recognition of Palestinian to come at the end – if negotiations were successful. In the past talks have always failed to reach that point. Recognition before negotiations begin would signal to Israel that this time failure is not an option.
Cameron’s idea wouldn’t have been unveiled if it hadn’t been discussed with the US and Arab states, and he flew back to Oman today. It seems the government is beginning to realise that relations with Arab states – and Muslim states elsewhere – are more important than staying on-side with Israel, especially while it is being investigated for genocide, and indeed that being associated with the devastation being wreaked on Gaza has been hugely damaging to the reputation of the UK throughout the world.
These potentially game-changing developments shouldn’t distract from what is still happening in Gaza, where the death-toll is now more than 26,000. Israeli spokesmen have responded to the ICJ report by claiming that Israel is already doing what the report is calling for because it already goes above and beyond what is required by international law to protect civilian lives – a very chilling example of marking your own homework and giving it an undeserved A*.
Actions we can take
Even if the move to start talks about a two state solution quickly gathers momentum, people are being killed every day in Gaza, and are suffering under appalling conditions deliberately imposed by Israel. We need to keep up pressure on MPs to challenge the government’s refusal to call the killing in Gaza genocide and demand a ceasefire, and we need to keep getting the attention of the media by marching, and demonstrating that the British people care about the Palestinian people, even if our political leaders don’t seem to.