Genocide in Gaza

Mike Smith
4 months ago
Categories: Christopher Luxon, gaza, israel, Joe Biden, Judith Collins, law, Palestine, Peace, Ukraine, winston peters, Zionism

South Africa has taken a case that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza to the International Court of Justice. A group of prominent New Zealand lawyers have asked the New Zealand Government to join South Africa in support of their application. I think we should.

South Africa’s application lists the following reasons:

…more gravely still, Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Those acts include killing them, causing them serious mental and bodily harm and deliberately inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction as a group. Repeated statements by Israeli State representatives, including at the highest levels, by the Israeli President, Prime Minister, and Minister of Defence express genocidal intent. That intent is also properly to be inferred from the nature and conduct of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, having regard inter alia to Israel’s failure to provide or ensure essential food, water, medicine, fuel, shelter and other humanitarian assistance for the besieged and blockaded Palestinian people, which has pushed them to the brink of famine.

It is also clear from the nature, scope and extent of Israel’s military attacks on Gaza, which have involved the sustained bombardment over more than 11 weeks of one of the most densely populated places in the world, forcing the evacuation of 1.9 million people or 85% of the population of Gaza from their homes and herding them into ever smaller areas, without adequate shelter, in which they continue to be attacked, killed and harmed. Israel has now killed in excess of 21,110 named Palestinians,including over 7,729 children — with over 7,780 others missing, presumed dead under the rubble —and has injured over 55,243 other Palestinians, causing them severe bodily and mental harm. Israel has also laid waste to vast areas of Gaza, including entire neighbourhoods, and has damaged or destroyed in excess of 355,000 Palestinian homes, alongside extensive tracts of agricultural land, bakeries, schools,universities, businesses, places of worship, cemeteries, cultural and archaeological sites, municipal and court buildings, and critical infrastructure, including water and sanitation facilities and electricity networks, while pursuing a relentless assault on the Palestinian medical and healthcare system. Israel has reduced and is continuing to reduce Gaza to rubble, killing, harming and destroying its people, and creating conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction as a group.

The New Zealand lawyers’ letter is addressed to Ministers Luxon, Peters, Collins and Goldsmith. It says inter alia:

We are writing to urge the New Zealand government to support South Africa’s request to the International Court of Justice for provisional measures regarding Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza.

South Africa’s comprehensive submissions set out compelling prima facie arguments that what is occurring in Gaza is capable of falling within the Genocide Convention, and why it is important that South Africa raises these arguments to uphold the integrity of the Convention. It has asked for the Court to make interim orders and the hearing is scheduled for 11 and 12 January 2024, where Israel will be opposing the arguments.

We understand the diplomatic sensitivities involved in these proceedings. But New Zealand has a long history of supporting the work of the International Court of Justice: New Zealand called for its establishment, took a request for provisional measures successfully over nuclear testing in 1973, and until recently had a judge (Sir Kenneth Keith) on the Court. New Zealand must also ensure the Genocide Convention is not degraded by ongoing inaction in the face of what is occurring in Gaza. As you likely know, New Zealand intervened formally in Ukraine’s case against Russia at the International Court of Justice in 2022, in a case that also concerned the Genocide Convention, and intervened in the whaling case involving Australia and Japan in 2012.

Many other commenters have supported this application by south Africa. One such is US Professor John Mearsheimer. He says of the application that it ” is a superb description of what Israel is doing in Gaza. It is comprehensive, well-written, well-argued, and thoroughly documented.”

He makes some other points particularly in relation to the United States and President Joe Biden:

…even though the South African application focuses on Israel, it has huge implications for the United States, especially President Biden and his principal lieutenants. Why? Because there is little doubt that the Biden administration is complicitous in Israel’s genocide, which is also a punishable act according to the Genocide Convention. Despite his admission that Israel is engaged in “indiscriminate bombing,” President Biden has also stated that “we’re not going to do a damn thing other than protect Israel. Not a single thing.”

He has been true to his word, going so far as to bypass Congress twice to quickly get additional armaments to Israel. Leaving aside the legal implications of his behavior, Biden’s name – and America’s name – will be forever associated with what is likely to become one of the textbook cases of attempted genocide.

That’s right.