Israel faces 'genocide' charge at UN top court
UNITED NATIONS
Israel hit back at the allegations it is committing "genocide" in Gaza, in a closely watched landmark case before the U.N.'s top court on Friday.
South Africa has launched an emergency case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) arguing that Israel stands in breach of the U.N. Genocide Convention, signed in 1948 in the wake of the Holocaust.
Pretoria wants judges to force Israel to "immediately" stop the attacks on Gaza.
At least 23,469 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel's offensive, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
Tal Becker, a top lawyer representing Israel, said South Africa had "regrettably put before the court a profoundly distorted factual and legal picture."
He stressed that Israel's response was in self-defence and not aimed at the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip.
Both Israel and its ally the United States have dismissed the case as groundless and vowed a robust defence.
'Crossed the line'
For this emergency proceeding, the court will not rule on the fundamentals of the case — whether Israel is actually committing genocide — but on whether the rights of Gazans to exist are at risk.
South Africa can bring an ICJ case against Israel as both countries have signed the Genocide Convention.
Pretoria's Justice Minister Ronald Lamola told the court on Thursday that Israel had "crossed the line" and was in breach of the convention.
He said that even the brutality of the Hamas attack could not justify this.
"Genocides are never declared in advance," said Adila Hassim, a top lawyer for South Africa.
"But this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly a pattern of conduct and related intention that justifies a plausible claim of genocidal acts."
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has long been a firm supporter of the Palestinian cause, often linking it to its own struggle against the white-minority apartheid government, which had cooperative relations with Israel.
Anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela famously said South Africa's freedom would be "incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians".
Local officials in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Friday raised the flag of South Africa, sparking cheers from the crowd.
Bethlehem mayor Anton Salman told AFP that South Africa had "shown up our suffering all around the world," hoping the case would bring "fruitful results for the Palestinian people and for humanity in general."
Addressing the ICJ on Thursday, the lawyer for South Africa Blinne Ni Ghralaigh said international justice itself was on the line.
"Some might say that the very reputation of international law, its ability and will to bind and protect all peoples equally, hangs in the balance," she told the court.
