“This is not the moment for the court to sit back and be silent. It’s necessary to assert its authority.”
This was the strong and overarching statement made by Professor Vaughan Lowe KC, a practising advocate at the Essex Court Chambers in the UK who was one of the final speakers on behalf of South Africa in its case against Israel.
South Africa’s legal team has concluded its arguments at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague in The Netherlands on Thursday, marking the first leg of the arguments.
Lowe said South Africa had kept its application in this case within the Genocide Convention.
“One may ask why has South Africa has not sought an interdict against Hamas. Hamas is not a state and can’t be a party to the Genocide Convention and to these proceedings,” he explained.
Not all acts of violence constitute genocide. Genocide requires the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, or religious group. But, Lowe said, despite the fact that what Israel was doing in Gaza may also constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity, there was still no defence to committing genocide.
“Months of continuing bombing and cutting off food, water, electricity, and communication to an entire population cannot credibly be argued to be a manhunt for members of Hamas. It is an indiscriminate attack, killing, maiming, and terrorising the entire population of Gaza.
“Israel’s actions both attack Palestinians in Gaza directly and prevent humanitarian aid from reaching them,” he said.
He further emphasised that it’s “no use” that Israel says it does whatever it can to minimise the deaths of innocent men, women, and children, as the use of 2,000-pound bombs and relentless bombing of even “safe” areas of Gaza tell another story.
“If any military operation, no matter how carefully it’s carried out, is carried out pursuant to an intention to destroy people in whole or in part, it violates the Genocide Convention. It must stop,” he said.“No matter how monstrous an attack or provocation, genocide is never a permitted response.”
He further accused the Israeli government of being intent on destroying the Palestinians in Gaza as a group and doing nothing to prevent or punish the actions of others who supported that aim.
“Nothing can ever justify genocide.
“Genocidal attacks on the whole of Gaza and the whole of its population with the intent to destroy them cannot be justified,” Lowe added.
Source:IOL News
The US is the major sponsor of Israeli genocide on Palestine. Its top official Blinken is already visiting countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey etc to lobby them not to support SA’s petition. They have sent more arms to Israel even in face of excessive fire power used against Palestinians. It’s no longer necessary to belong to the UN
This is what happens when good men and women seat watch evil being perpetuated on an industrial scale.
What happened to the Ethiopian women?
Watch “‘Israel is a RACIST Apartheid Government’ | Bassem Youssef #bassemyoussef #racism #israel” on YouTube
Genocide absolute nonsense Calling for the total destruction of Isreal is that not in its self
a crime … Lobby all you want it will be thrown out
Isreal has survived 2000 + plus years and will survive another 2,000
Tikki, these coterie of 57 Islamic nations refuse to take Palestinian to their countries and have tried a number of times to annihilate Jews. Who started this time, the killing of innocent civilians, young girls, elderly ladies and youngsters? The Hamas bigots. They shall be taken to the Hague along with their sponsors, abetters and financiers.
It’s a sad development. Over twenty thousand civilians killed and still getting killed.
Any country that cannot defend itself will perish. A person facing death will do anything in his power to defend itself. Black South Africa is seeking not justice for the Gaza Palestinians, it is avenging its apartheid era sufferings simply. Poor Israel is surrounded by hostile nations. What will happen to its existence if it cannot defend itself?
That is logical thinking TY
But is logic in our African dictionary ??
Just read some of the post on LT
Afterall we still crying about the slave trade 200 + years ago
………
Would you accept broken Hill man to come back to kabwe after hundereds of years and evict people from the houses , and…………
Claim he was there first ???
That is what the Jews are doing, evicting Palestinians from generations owned land and claiming God gave them the land, as if……….
God was an estate agent
Who the fck is using my count? Let me trace you down, you are dead man walking.
Poor Israel? With the world’s biggest army supporting them with warships, marines and missiles to say nothing about the financing. There was no Israel before 1948 so where were the jews?
So South Africa and Rhodesia were justifiably defending themselves against Zambia and Umkonto we Sizwe?
Israel is surrounded by enemies who do not want her existence. They have intentions of obliterating Israel from the map. Israel will do all it can to protect herself from such belligerent nations.South African has no moral right to petition JCC when in their country fellow Africans are being killed like rabid dogs in the name of xenophobia. These are the double standards we talk about. South Africa should come clean on xenophobia before it removes a speck from Israel’s eyes. Hamas has been doing a lot of atrocities on Israel and South Africa has been as quiet as a grave.
Speck? 20,000 people murdered and you say speck? And do you know how to read? The lawyer is saying those war or civil crimes you are citing are not genocide so they can come up under different jurisdictions. Noone stops you from asking your country to raise the charges
We in pf, just like South africa, stand with Palestine. Hh is controlled by his western masters.
You in PF cant even sort your your own broken Party out, now you want to comment on International affairs
Fuseke
Hh will start bleaching soon because he worships whltes
Since we took over from the whites you destroyed all industries so what are you on about
we can achieve very little on our own 60 Years and rural areas are still in a time waro
Judaism is a religion. So Jews are not a race. Anybody who believes in Judaism is a Jew. The modern state of Israel was founded by Ashkenazi Jews. Ashkenazi Jews are pure Europeans who converted to Judaism, mainly from the Khazar tribe of Eastern Europe. Before the creation of Israel in Palestine, the majority of the people there were Arabs ,but there was a presence of Mizrahi Jews in the minority. These two groups of people had been living in that area for thousands of years, as the two indigenous population groups.
You can judge for yourself who the true owners of that land are!
State your point more convincingly. What If I were to say “Voodo is a religion. So Africans are not a race: Just for academics’ sake
What makes a race?
“Whites were born from two Black people in Ethiopia?” Well, they couldnt have been born from three black people could they? Or one black person?
Weather we call them anything, they are all Canaanites.
Look at Abraham. Abraham married Sarah who was the daughter of his elder brother.
Then Abraham had a son, ISHIMIL from the Egyptian maid.
Also Abraham had another son now with Sarah, ISAAC; Isaac two sons, ESAU and Jacob. All these are CANAANITES.
Esau was a great hunter and now he is the RUSSIA we have bombing Ukraine which Russia has enslaved because of the good soils and turning them into slaves. Independent Ukraine is a saw in Russian eye. Now, We black people and NOT Africans but ASIANS. The Indians are cross breeds between RUSSIANS and the Black people.
Whites were born from two Black people in Ethiopia to be precise. Following Downs Genetic Engineering, rats in Britain were found to have come from Ethiopia.
wow you can talk nonsense
If you want history you ought to know that Abraham had more than 2 sons from his 3 wives.
if you have nothing stay put israel must defend itself
You sound very much like our colonialists. Ian Smith said he had a right to defend Rhodesians. Botha supported by Reagan and Thatcher said South Africa should defend itself from ANC terrorists
What is in it for South Africa?
@Nakulu This is the one time South Africa needs to be supported by all of Africa. Apartheid was a replica of Israeli segregation. The PLO and ANC became friends because of their common struggles. South Africa, with the help of Israel, was oppressed similarly by European settlers who considered black land as theirs. If you look at the Bantustan ideology you will see Israel is employing the same strategy. Real jews do not support the state of Israel which was born in 1948 (watch Rabbi Weiss or Scott Ritter) Whats in it for SA?: Justice You dont see someone being oppressed and look the other way because its not you on the receiving end.
@Igno Ramus also watch Rabbi Elhanan Beck. These are authentic jews priests in Judaism
On second thought, who is funding South Africa?
South africa, just like many African countries, is a rich country endowed with minerals etc
I wonder why Arab countries like Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia etc are not sponsoring the Gaza genocide case. Who even raised a finger when Arab janjaweed were carrying out a genocide against black people in The Sudan area bordering Chad and CAR? Black Africa and South Africa have too many problems of its own to be wasting time and breathing hot air on this Gaza issue. Why do we care so much for others when nobody cares for us? We actually abused and looked down upon everywhere in the world except in the motherland