It is a bitter twist of history that 75 years after the horrors of the Holocaust saw the UN adopt the genocide convention, Israel is likely to find itself in the dock of the international court of justice accused of being intent on destroying the Palestinians “in whole or in part”. Hundreds of people – mainly women and children – are dying every day under Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip, a death rate reckoned to be the worst of any major conflict this century.
South Africa filed an application instituting genocide proceedings against Israel at The Hague a month ago. On Friday, the world court said it had established that at least some of the acts alleged by South Africa fell within the provisions of the convention. While a final judgment is years away, this was a historic decision by the court. It was not made lightly by jurists in the middle of a war that was sparked by a horrific Hamas attack last October that left 1,200 Israelis dead.
