{"id":14700,"date":"2024-01-27T00:46:13","date_gmt":"2024-01-27T00:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/27\/top-un-court-says-israel-must-take-all-measures-to-prevent-genocide-in-gaza-but-stops-short-of-calling-for-ceasefire\/"},"modified":"2024-01-27T00:46:13","modified_gmt":"2024-01-27T00:46:13","slug":"top-un-court-says-israel-must-take-all-measures-to-prevent-genocide-in-gaza-but-stops-short-of-calling-for-ceasefire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/27\/top-un-court-says-israel-must-take-all-measures-to-prevent-genocide-in-gaza-but-stops-short-of-calling-for-ceasefire\/","title":{"rendered":"Top UN court says Israel must take \u2018all measures\u2019 to prevent genocide in Gaza but stops short of calling for ceasefire"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The UN\u2019s top court ordered Israel to prevent genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, but stopped short of calling for Israel to suspend its military campaign in the war-torn enclave, as South Africa had requested. <\/p>\n

In a hearing in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Friday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Israel must \u201ctake all measures\u201d to limit the death and destruction caused by its military campaign, prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and ensure access to humanitarian aid. <\/p>\n

South Africa had accused Israel of violating international laws on genocide, written in the wake of the Holocaust, and wanted the court to order Israel to cease fire in Gaza. <\/p>\n

While the ICJ did not order Israel to end its war, the ruling represents a blow to Israel, which had hoped the case would be dismissed outright. <\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s decision related only to South Africa\u2019s request for emergency measures, which act like a restraining order while the court considers the full merits of the genocide case, which could take years. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is at serious risk of deteriorating further before the court renders its final judgment,\u201d Judge Joan Donoghue, the ICJ\u2019s president, said Friday. <\/p>\n

By an overwhelming majority, the court\u2019s 17-judge panel voted in favor of six emergency measures, ordering Israel to \u201ctake all measures within its power\u201d to prevent acts which could fall foul of the 1948 Genocide Convention, and to ensure its military does not commit genocidal acts in Gaza. <\/p>\n

It also ordered Israel to \u201cprevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide,\u201d and to guarantee the \u201cprovision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance\u201d in the enclave. <\/p>\n

Israel was also ordered to preserve evidence related to allegations of genocide and report back to the court on its compliance with these measures in a month. <\/p>\n

The ICJ\u2019s decisions are binding and cannot be appealed, but it has no way of enforcing them. In 2022 it ordered Russia to immediately suspend its invasion of Ukraine, but Moscow\u2019s war rages on nearly two years later. <\/p>\n

Israel had already indicated it would not accept the ICJ\u2019s orders. \u201cNobody will stop us \u2013 not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anybody else,\u201d Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s office wrote on X. <\/p>\n

The court\u2019s panel ordinarily comprises 15 judges, but was expanded in this case by additional judges from South Africa and Israel. <\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s judge Aharon Barak, an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor and former president of the country\u2019s Supreme Court, voted in favor of two of the emergency measures, ordering Israel to curb incitements to genocide and to ensure aid can enter the enclave. <\/p>\n

Both sides hail ruling<\/h2>\n

Apart from its call for a halt in fighting, the bulk of South Africa\u2019s nine requests to the court were granted. <\/p>\n

The Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister, Riyad al-Maliki, said the ICJ had \u201cruled in favor of humanity and international law\u201d and thanked South Africa for bringing the case to the court. <\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s President Cyril Ramaphosa called the ruling a \u201cvictory for international law, for human rights, and above all for justice.\u201d <\/p>\n

While South Africa said it was \u201cdisappointed\u201d that the court did not order a ceasefire, its Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said she believes Israel will have to observe one if it is to comply with the other measures ordered. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn exercising the order, there would have to be a ceasefire,\u201d she said after the hearing. \u201cWithout it the order doesn\u2019t actually work.\u201d <\/p>\n

Despite the court\u2019s ordering emergency measures, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the ruling as a rejection of discrimination against his country. <\/p>\n

\u201cLike every country, Israel has an inherent right to defend itself,\u201d he said in a short video message. \u201cThe vile attempt to deny Israel this fundamental right is blatant discrimination against the Jewish state, and it was justly rejected.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, not all members of Netanyahu\u2019s cabinet welcomed the ruling. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant criticized the court\u2019s\u00a0decision\u00a0to hear the case altogether, claiming the ICJ \u201cgranted South Africa\u2019s antisemitic request to discuss the claim of genocide in Gaza, and now refuses to reject the petition outright.\u201d <\/p>\n

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said, \u201cThose truly needing to stand trial are those that murdered and kidnapped children, women and the elderly,\u201d referring to those killed and taken hostage by Hamas on October 7. <\/p>\n

Palestinian militant group Hamas also welcomed the court\u2019s decision in a statement on Friday, saying it\u00a0anticipates further court decisions convicting Israel \u201cof genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018A very significant rebuke\u2019<\/h2>\n

Legal experts have said that, while the court did not grant the most explosive of South Africa\u2019s requests, in finding that Israel is \u201cplausibly\u201d violating laws on genocide, its decision is damning. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe world court looked at (Israel\u2019s) actions in Gaza and said it is not implausible that it\u2019s violating the Genocide Convention. I don\u2019t see how that can possibly be a victory. In some sense it\u2019s a rebuke, and it is also a rebuke to the governments of the world that support Israel in its actions in Gaza,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

In the initial hearing two weeks ago, South Africa alleged that Israel\u2019s leadership was \u201cintent on destroying the Palestinians as a group in Gaza,\u201d and that its aerial and ground assaults aimed to \u201cbring about the destruction\u201d of Palestinians in the enclave. <\/p>\n

South Africa and Israel are both parties to the Genocide Convention, meaning they are obliged not to commit genocide and to prevent and punish it. <\/p>\n

Israel reacted furiously to the accusation and rejected what it called South Africa\u2019s \u201cgrossly distorted story,\u201d telling the court its war in Gaza was fought in self-defense, that it was targeting Hamas rather than Palestinian civilians, and that its leadership had not displayed genocidal intent. <\/p>\n

It said the accusation of genocide was an attempt to \u201cpervert the meaning\u201d of the term and empty it of its \u201cunique force.\u201d <\/p>\n

Israel claimed if genocidal acts had been committed, they were \u201cperpetrated against Israel\u201d on October 7, when Hamas fighters stormed into the country from Gaza, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 240 hostage, according to Israeli officials. Israel\u2019s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has since killed more than 26,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the enclave. <\/p>\n

This is a developing story and will be updated. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UN\u2019s top court ordered Israel to prevent genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, but stopped short of calling for Israel to suspend its military campaign in the war-torn enclave, as South Africa had requested. In a hearing in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Friday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Israel must \u201ctake all <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}