![[Headline] What were Israel’s main defence arguments? Step Vaessen / Reporting from The Hague Israel’s main defence was that its actions were self-defence against Hamas’s attack on October 7. Unsurprisingly, we heard a very long argument about how atrocious these attacks were, they showed pictures of the hostages and they also mentioned that South Africa didn’t mention anything about this on the first day of the hearing on Thursday and that was misleading, a word that was mentioned many times. In terms of the intent, which is a very important issue to prove that Israel indeed has the intent to commit genocide against the people of Gaza, the argument by Israel was that it was clearly not government policy, according to them, although South Africa mentioned a number of statements [by Israeli officials]. Israel also pointed out that it is a rules-based country with a legal system, so everything that goes wrong in Gaza, if crimes are committed, those will be dealt with in the national courts. And finally the issue of jurisdiction; for a dispute to be here at the ICJ, one of the requirements is that the state that takes a case to this court should try to sort out this problem first; according to Israel, they didn’t manage to talk to South Africa before they brought this case to the court although they tried.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/1217016ffdfa50661d3eda2ed795e7e7/139925458b3a3c5a-f6/s1280x1920/75395ded99c6e62ec398a2328afb3b86e3f47d2a.png)
ALT![*Analysis [Headline] Israel’s legal defence off to weak start: Analyst Al Jazeera senior political analyst Marwan Bishara says Israel’s legal team has made a weak start in its case but made a few strong points near the end. Bishara said the lawyers’ efforts to deflect blame for Israel’s attacks and ignore the context of Israel’s 75-year occupation of Palestine came across as “illogical”. Their claims that Israel’s forces are trying to protect, rather than harm, civilians were also unconvincing, he said, given the death toll of the war: 23,708 Palestinians, including 9,600 children, since October 7. However, Bishara said Israel’s lawyers did well to zero in on the jurisdiction of the ICJ – pointing out that the court must specifically prove Israel is guilty of genocidal intent, not any other violations. “You can claim Israel has committed heinous crimes, but if they do not fall under the framework of genocide, the court has no jurisdiction,” Bishara said.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/d629c15ff519a97ee26a594a19e76997/139925458b3a3c5a-9e/s1280x1920/7c685f2dc783591112f736eced58463f87fda816.png)
ALT![* Analysis [Headline] Israel’s arguments may not hold up at the merits stage: University lecturer Thomas MacManus, a senior lecturer in state crime at Queen Mary University of London, has spoken to Al Jazeera about Israel’s arguments and compared them to South Africa’s case on Thursday. Here are his main points: *The statements outlined in the intent section of South Africa’s case clearly showed talks and rhetoric from government officials about “human animals” and about destroying Gaza. They were giving concrete examples of intent. *Israel’s argument is that they are statements of anguish and maybe they don’t have any control over the military or are not part of the war cabinet. *That’s not what we’re going to look for when we get to the merits stage of intent. We are going to look for the overall picture. Is the government creating an atmosphere where everyone understands that it’s government policy to destroy the Palestinians?](https://64.media.tumblr.com/9264b408fc05c80dc89ffe3afdfe206a/139925458b3a3c5a-9d/s1280x1920/737391abef355ddbe76df0070097f059a26ae58b.png)
ALT![* Analysis [Headline] Israel lost ‘moral’ case, but made strong ‘procedural’ points Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara says that throughout the hearing, Israel lost the moral, factual, historical and humanitarian argument because of the way the situation has unravelled in Gaza – with the sheer death and industrial killing there”. He said the Israeli legal teams’ continuous efforts to blame Hamas for the suffering in Gaza – where at least 23,700 people have been killed – and to convince the court that Israel is trying to ameliorate the humanitarian situation there were unconvincing. However, he said the Israeli team did make strong “jurisdictional and procedural arguments”. They relate to whether South Africa has a legitimate “dispute” with Israel that warrants it taking Israel to the ICJ in the first place, the court’s limited jurisdiction, and the grounds for each of the “provisional measures” sought by South Africa to protect Palestinians from harm. While Israel lost the “moral argument”, its team may have “made a dent” in South Africa’s case with its jurisdictional points, said Bishara.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/ba1cd2eb0761f0bd303f3e7edc06027f/139925458b3a3c5a-6e/s1280x1920/998e4b54c2146ee0094ddf8b6f8aa1790776c3c6.png)
ALT![[Headline] ‘Self-defence is no answer to genocide’, says South Africa’s justice minister South Africa’s Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola just spoke to members of press outside the ICJ. Here are the main points from his interaction: * Israel failed to disprove South Africa’s compelling case that was presented yesterday. *Israel tells the court that these statements read out by senior Israeli political, military and civilian society leaders are simply rhetorical, and we shall not ascribe them any importance. *There is no debate about what Prime Minister Netanyahu’s term “Amalek” means and how it is understood by soldiers fighting on the ground and by the Israelis. * How can you ignore Netanyahu’s statement, the statement of the defence minister and the ground forces? That is a clear implementation of policy. *Israel chose today to focus extensively on the events of October 7. South Africa has not ignored this event as Israel alleged because it has unequivocally condemned and continues to condemn October 7. *Self-defence is no answer to genocide. Nothing can ever justify genocide](https://64.media.tumblr.com/0fc6c20079b5ccd5871a92188566e21e/139925458b3a3c5a-ba/s1280x1920/919c52c8167276253e0a2eb277f3b5d8f14651bb.png)
ALT![* Analysis [Headline] ‘Massive disconnect’ between Israel’s claims and reality The ICJ is likely to see a “massive disconnect” between the picture Israel painted today of its humanitarian concern for Gaza and “the reality on the ground where UN agencies say people are starving, lacking water, and seeing attacks on hospitals, schools, and universities”, says Thomas MacManus, a senior lecturer in state crime at Queen Mary University of London. “I think the court will find it very difficult to add these two things,” MacManus told Al Jazeera. Countering the Israeli team’s case that Israeli decision-makers have not shown “genocidal intent” towards Palestinians, MacManus pointed to numerous statements by Israeli leaders, documented in South Africa’s submission to the court, that suggest otherwise. “The court only needs to look at the statements in South Africa’s submission – with the ranking and authority of those making them – and ask whether they plausibly reach the level of intent required for genocide. I think the court will have to do that,” he said.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/425f118b8e4523249ca7041ca0092317/139925458b3a3c5a-6c/s1280x1920/c4f50dff1b3c6b352c9529e54775b19a5e5f5518.png)
ALTfrom al jazeera's live reporting of the second day of the ICJ hearings, 12 Jan 2024
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![Analysis [Headline] South Africa’s case was ‘very impressive’ Thomas MacManus, senior lecturer in state crime at the School of Law, Queen Mary University of London, tells Al Jazeera that South Africa’s case was “very impressive”. “They set out in a very concise way some devastating accusations strung together in such a legally sound way,” MacManus said, adding that he was impressed by the way its representatives presented the conduct and intent as well as their points related to jurisdiction. South Africa’s arguments related to the urgency of the case, MacManus said, will be “the most devastating” from Israel’s point of view.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/30d6d882393aec168cb7e270fb7e3772/a54ef4e96946c8e7-6d/s1280x1920/ebd2f7af842bbc46d86d1b200efe5f83b3de8ec0.png)
![[Headline] ‘ICJ heard most detailed, gruesome case in its history’ By Step Vaessen / Reporting from The Hague We have just listened to three hours of very detailed descriptions of what South Africa says is a very compelling case of genocide that Israel is now committing in Gaza. South Africa is asking the court to quickly decide on urgent provisional measures to ask Israel to stop whatever it is doing: Military action, mass displacement, depriving Gazans of food, shelter, water, and basic healthcare. Historians, who have been following the ICJ for many years, say that this is the most detailed, most gruesome case so far.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/e41b8db4916907ee6615d684a695d7fa/a54ef4e96946c8e7-67/s1280x1920/bfb2d10b97dd9ff222e3c68d94776c1826833496.png)
![[Headline] South Africa’s case ‘extremely compelling’ Speaking to Al Jazeera outside the court in The Hague, professor Alanna O’Malley says, “This is a historic case.” “We see from the invocation of the various articles of the Genocide Convention by the South African legal team the ways in which they are going to structurally present this case,” she said, calling it “extremely compelling” and “well organised”. “We’ve heard only three parts so far of the whole, we see the evidence in both video and in image to be extremely powerful. We also see the evidence gathered from a variety of sources which really adds to its veracity and its strength.”](https://64.media.tumblr.com/f534c18b2dcfd44d66a439e3015f0321/a54ef4e96946c8e7-2a/s1280x1920/0ad4f04f22c13a8e03d7ed6c952af53677744f69.png)
![Analysis [Headline] South Africa’s lawyers showed Israel’s genocidal war did not start on October 7 Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara says it was very important that South Africa’s lawyers started out by showing the history and context of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. They showed that “what we see today unravelling in front of our eyes – the genocide – did not start on October 7, that there is a long history of genocide and apartheid, discrimination, hate speech, war crimes and so on since 1948”, he said. “The second thing that was very important was that it showed there was a pattern on the part of Israelis both since October 7 and before to actually cause harm to the Palestinian people as a collective.”](https://64.media.tumblr.com/e7a4acc288afbc2a3b243a4edb06558c/a54ef4e96946c8e7-90/s1280x1920/78fbf44a050af5913541d1fa79ef354d0adc28ab.png)
South Africa yesterday: "The argument isn't about what Hamas did and didn't do because no matter what they did, nothing justifies genocide."
Israel today: "It's interesting that South Africa is overlooking the crimes of Hamas. Let's talk about the crimes of Hamas. I'm incapable of refuting allegations of genocidal intent so I'm just going to go on about Hamas. I don't care if we established that nothing Hamas could've done justifies genocide, let's talk some more about Hamas."
They really said "South Africa's argument ignores the events of the 7th of October" like South Africa didn't very clearly establish that no matter how horrific the events of the 7th of October were, it doesn't justify genocide.
One of my friends is teaching a course this year and she decided to run an “experiment” on her students and the syllabus. Conclusion: she is hilarious and students never read the syllabus.
Holy shit that's so cool
Finally “do you love the colour of the sky” got compressed for our convenience
This is now my favorite photo
To those saying the ICJ ruling doesn’t matter because Israel won’t abide by it…
The Algerian liberation wasn’t won by armed resistance only the international pressure on France was just as important if not more.
South Africa didn’t put an end to Apartheid through armed resistance only the international pressure on apartheid was just as important if not more.
This ruling, if in favors of Palestinians (which is the only legitimate outcome) could send a message to the world but mainly to Israel’s allies.
International support is needed just as much as armed struggle. Armed struggle without the isolation of the colonizer/oppressor is a very hard thing. Which is why this is important and it’s also important for us pro Palestinians folks in the West to keep protesting to keep boycotting and to keep pressuring our governments.
Palestine will be free in our time Inch’Allah and we will witness Palestinian celebrating and we will celebrate with them.