Pretoria's genocide case against Israel is crucial, not just to stop Tel Aviv's carnage in Gaza, but to
plant the first flag of multipolarism in the globe's courtrooms: this is the first case of many that will seek to halt western impunity and restore international law as envisioned in the UN Charter.
© The Cradle
Nothing less than the full concept of international law will be on trial this week in The Hague. The whole world is watching.
It took an African nation, not an Arab or Muslim nation, but significantly a BRICS member, to try to break the iron chains deployed by Zionism via fear, financial might, and non-stop threats, enslaving not only Palestine but substantial swathes of the planet.By a twist of historical poetic justice, South Africa, a nation that knows one or two things about apartheid, had to take the moral high ground and be the first to file a suit against apartheid Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The
84-page lawsuit, exhaustively argued, fully documented, and filed on 29 December 2023, details all the ongoing horrors perpetrated in the occupied Gaza Strip and followed by everyone with a smartphone around the planet.
South Africa asks the ICJ - a UN mechanism - something quite straightforward: Declare that
the state of Israel has breached all its responsibilities under international law since 7 October.And that, crucially, includes a violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention, according to which genocide consists of "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."
South Africa is supported by Jordan, Bolivia, Turkiye, Malaysia, and significantly the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which combines the lands of Islam, and constitutes 57 member states, 48 of these harboring a Muslim majority. It's as if these nations were representing the overwhelming majority of the Global South.Whatever happens at The Hague could go way beyond a possible condemnation of Israeli for genocide. Both Pretoria and Tel Aviv are members of the ICJ - so the rulings are binding. The ICJ, in theory, carries more weight than the UN Security Council, where the US vetoes any hard facts that tarnish Israel's carefully constructed self-image.
The only problem is that the ICJ does not have enforcement power.
What South Africa, in practical terms, is aiming to achieve is to have the ICJ impose on Israel an order to stop the invasion - and the genocide - right away. That should be the first priority.
Comment: Given Russia's contained exhibition of its capabilities in the war with Ukraine, it should give other nations pause in taking sides against the most formidable opponent on the planet. Neutrality was respected - a position by which all countries would benefit should they be of non-aggressive minds and not salesmen of the trappings of war.