Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

3-minute read
04 December 2024 | 17:18 CAT

Thousands demonstrate to show solidarity with the Palestinian people at the Galata Bridge in Istanbul on 1 January (AFP/Yasin Akgul)

On 29 December, South Africa filed an urgent application at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the Netherlands, “in which the court is requested to declare on an urgent basis that Israel is in breach of its obligations in terms of the Genocide Convention, should immediately cease all acts and measures in breach of those obligations and take a number of related actions”, according to a statement from the Department of International Relations and Cooperation.

South Africa is no longer alone in bringing its claim of genocide by the Israeli government to the ICJ, following announcements from the Turkish Foreign Ministry and the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that they support the case.

International rights groups called on Wednesday for other countries to file Declarations of Intervention at the court, whose authority Israel recognizes, to bolster South Africa’s case.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said it expects “that within the framework of this application, the ICJ will decide on provisional measures involving those to stop Israel’s attacks on Gaza.”

The Malaysia Ministry of Foreign Affairs said late Tuesday that it “welcomes the application by South Africa instituting proceedings against Israel, concerning the violations by Israel of its obligations under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in relation to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

“The ICJ is scheduled to hear the case on January 11-12, which is in under two weeks’ time,” Executive Director of the Afro-Middle East Centre, Naeem Jeenah, told Radio Islam International.

Jeenah added, “while the South African application hoped for an earlier date, it is quite significant that the court has given a date so early.”

Jeenah said the South African legal team will argue the case at the ICJ, and Israel’s legal team will defend.

Israeli attacks have left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicines.

Listen to the full interview on Sabahul Muslim with Moulana Habib Bobat.