Global Senses

On January 11th, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) began the public-hearing of South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. While there is little chance that the court’s ruling will force Israel to stop the war in Gaza, the United Nations system is equally on trial and the whole world is watching.

Historically, the International Judicial system has mostly been about the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicting current and former African leaders on charges of crimes against humanity and abuse of power. This led many African countries to withdraw from such a system and accuse it of bias and selective targeting of Africans. Now, let it be known that some of those indicted people had committed awful crimes and had to face justice. However, one could not ignore that the Court had a particular agenda for Africa. This itself is rooted in the idea of displaying the Collective West as morally superior to the Global South.

Now, ICC’s sister court, the ICJ, is experiencing an unprecedented phenomenon. South Africa is accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. This is based on Israel’s collective punishment strategies of indiscriminate bombing that targets civilians, children, and health centers, expulsion and displacement of Palestinians from their homes, and the rhetoric from some of the government members that is symbolic of the intent to erase Palestinians from Gaza. Of course, Israel defended its campaign as a self-defense effort against Hamas.

This is a case that has brought so much scrutiny on the Court. Everyone is waiting to see how it will handle the overwhelming accusations and evidence against Israel and its biggest ally, the United States. Given the support Israel has received from the West and that South Africa has received from the rest of the world, it also feels like a trial of whether the court, and the United Nations system by extension, can truly flex its international law tenets and principles on a country backed and allied deeply to the West.

South Africa presents a strong case. It does not need to prove right away that Israel is committing a genocide. It simply needs to convince the panel of judges that there is a plausibility of genocide being committed and that the court needs to take provisional measures in line with the Genocide Convention.

The plight of Palestinians has been ongoing for decades, but it seems that the majority of the world is finally waking up to their call. The support for Palestine has reached the walls of power and it is shaking the current “human rights-based” order led by the Western World. That means something. The formal calls by other countries for an independent, sovereign state of Palestine are increasing day by day. The struggle for Palestine’s self-determination will be long and complex, but it is gaining momentum.