SOUTH AFRICA ARGUES GENOCIDE CASE AGAINST ISRAEL AT THE UN’S TOP COURT. Will a Rule-Based or Law-Based World Order Prevail?
On January 11, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of the United Nations formally heard the case of genocide filed by South Africa against Israel. The case seeks to immediately halt the military operations of Israel in Gaza. The deliberations are being held in the ICJ offices in The Hague, Netherlands.
South African lawyers pointed to the Court that it had ‘the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly a pattern of conduct and related intention’ ‘that amounts to ‘a plausible claim of genocidal acts’.1https://apnews.com/article/world-court-israel-genocide-gaza-south-africa-774ab3c3d57fd7bcc627602eaf47fd98 South Africa most likely referred to the video footages viewed worldwide of killings done by the IDF mostly against women, children and non-combatant males. South Africa showed some of these videos documenting the alleged genocide to the Judges of the Court.2https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ufbfFTi38A. Captures a portion of South Africa’s presentation of their case against Israel at the ICJ.
Israel vehemently denied the allegations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vigorously challenged the case and said: ‘This is an upside-down world — the state of Israel is accused of genocide while it is fighting genocide … The hypocrisy of South Africa screams to the heavens.”
Israel has taken the case seriously. It often boycotts international hearings of this nature saying these investigations are “unfair and biased”. But this time, Israel has taken the unusual step to engage this case and argue in its defense. Israel has tapped brilliant legal minds to defend itself against the claim of genocide at world court.
On January 12, Israel makes a formal presentation of its rebuttal against the charge of genocide.
Since mid-October 2023, millions have been demonstrating around the world against the clear case of genocide taking place in Gaza and the West Bank. They view the ICJ case with great interest as can be seen in social media posts with millions viewing these posts.3The Al Jazeera English Twitter post of January 11, 2024, for example had 12 million views, https://twitter.com/search?q=GENOCIDE%20CASE%20AT%20ICJ&src=typed_query. This does not include other channels in X carrying the story in video format. The YouTube coverage is also significant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ufbfFTi38A. This one YouTube channel alone has 871,000 views as of January 13, 2024. There are dozens of YouTube channels following the ICJ trials. In the aggregate, the views are in the millions. They hope that the ICJ will uphold the South African position as, based on massive video evidence, genocide is taking place. They also hope that the genocide will stop once the ICJ finds Israel guilty of crimes against humanity.
However, while the guilt is obvious, it is not clear whether the UN’s enforcing institutions will act to stop the genocide. The enforcement power ultimately resides with the UN Security Council. The US is part of that Council and the US, like all members of the Council, have veto powers. The decision to act will have to be unanimous. That will most likely not happen. The US is the biggest supporter and funder of Israel. To act against Israel would be like convicting themselves of genocide.
Nonetheless, the case is ultimately dangerous for the future of Israel. Israel is in tough situation. If Israel loses in the genocide case and no UN action is taken against it, Israel’s global reputation will be destroyed. It will now become legally established that Israel is a genocidal nation. This will have deep economic, political and cultural impact against Israel.
The worst impact would be that Israel’s current enemies in the Middle East will be bolder in its actions against Israel. They would start taking stronger military action against Israel to stop a clear-cut UN finding that Israel has committed genocide. This bolder and stronger military action could take the form of more weapons and soldiers mobilized to support the Axis of Resistance against Israel in the Middle East.
If it wins, Israel and the US will have ultimately and vividly demonstrated that the current world order is not based on law and true justice. Instead, the world will be massively red-pilled. Millions will wake up and realize that they are living in the matrix of a rule-based international order dictated and controlled by the hegemonic power of the US Empire.
The world will learn, in the end, that the supposed law-based global order ideal of the UN does not really exist. This can only mean that nations will seek alliances that will be advantageous to them in a dog-eat-dog world and not in a world that rewards moral, just, and fair behavior. That condition is definitely not the kind of moral world order in an age where the world is teetering towards WWIII and ultimately nuclear war and the end of humanity.
People should now be awake to the raw reality of how decisions and actions are made. For decades now, there has been a cynical version of the Golden Rule that pervaded the world. This perversion of the Golden Rule arrogantly says: “Those who have the gold, rules!”
Hopefully, these painful doses of reality will trigger even more larger segments of humanity to awaken and start demanding bogus leaders to step down. They should support leaders, at all levels of society, who truly care for a free, truthful, and compassionate society. For that to happen, people should stop being passive observers of the world drama and do the most they can given their current situation in life. A little bit of principled action is better than none at all!
Incidents such as this like turning the whole world against Israel reminds me of what Dr. Alberto Rivera said in page 10 of “The Godfathers” (Published by Jack T. Chick in 1982).
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/07/middleeast/israel-mood-gaza-war-intl-cmd/index.html