Israel calls SA lawyers ‘Hamas’ representatives in the court’

As South Africa’s legal team at The Hague laid out its argument yesterday that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, the Israeli government hit out hard ahead of presenting its own case today.

It accused SA of “functioning as the legal arm of the Hamas terrorist organisation”, labelling the International Court of Justice (ICJ) action “one of the greatest shows of hypocrisy in history”.

The attack came from Lior Haiat, spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs After saying the South African lawyers were “Hamas’ representatives in the court”.

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He added: “South Africa seeks to allow Hamas to return to commit the war crimes, crimes against humanity and sexual crimes they committed repeatedly on 7 October, as its leaders have stated.

“The State of Israel will continue to protect its citizens in accordance with international law, while distinguishing between Hamas terrorists and the civilian population, and will do anything in its power to release all hostages and eliminate the Hamas terrorist organisation, a racist and anti-Semitic terrorist organisation that calls in its convention for the destruction of the State of Israel and the murder of Jews.”

As the hearing began yesterday, the SA team, which included top legal brains from the UK and Ireland, set out its arguments as to why Israel was guilty of violating the Genocide Convention, to which it is a signatory.

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Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said: “Israel’s attack on Gaza extends beyond the fight against Hamas, but is embedded in the fabric of Palestinian life in Gaza.”

Ngcukaitobi argued the most challenging element of a genocide charge against Israel is evidencing the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a specific people.

“You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.” Ngcukaitobi said these comments show genocidal intent.

“We remind the court of the authority and identity of the genocidal inciters: the prime minister, the president, the minister of defence, the minister of national security, the minister of energy and infrastructure, members of the Knesset [Israeli parliament], senior army officials, and foot soldiers.

“Genocidal utterances are, therefore, not out in the fringes, they are embodied in state policy. The intent to destroy is plainly understood by soldiers on the ground.

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“They were recorded by journalists dancing and singing,” Ngcukaitobi argued. Any suggestion that Israeli officials didn’t mean what they said or were misunderstood should be rejected by the court.

“The evidence of genocidal intent is not only chilling, it is also overwhelming and incontrovertible.”

Prof Vaughan Lowe, part of the SA legal team, told the court nothing could justify genocide, no matter how great the threat to Israeli security may be.

“No matter what some individuals within the group of Palestinians in Gaza may have done, and no matter how great the threat to Israeli cities may be, genocidal attacks on the whole of Gaza and the whole of its population with the intent of destroying them cannot be justified.

“No exception can be made in a provisional measures order to allow a state to engage in actions that violate its obligations under the Genocide Convention.

“It is unthinkable that a court would ever do such a thing That is the simple point in this case: genocide can never be justified in any circumstances,” Lowe said.

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This is not a moment for the court to sit back and be silent, he said.

“What Israel is doing in Gaza, it is doing under its own control. Its actions are enforcing its occupation. “The law on self-defence under Article 51 in the UN [United Nations] charter has no application.”

Lowe said the genocide case was not against Jewish or Israeli people but against the Israeli government

“The government of Israel and its military is intent on destroying the Palestinians of Gaza as a group and is doing nothing to prevent or punish the actions of others who support that aim,” Lowe said.

Dozens of people took to the streets in Cape Town yesterday in one of several demonstrations planned across SA in support of the government’s “genocide” case against Israel.

Standing on the steps of the high court, pro-Palestinian demonstrators held signs reading “Stop the genocide” and “Boycott apartheid Israel”. “Free Palestine,” some people chanted.

“The important issue for us is that there is a ceasefire, that military actions are stopped in Gaza,” said Seehaam Samaai, a lawyer in attendance.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has dismissed the accusations as “atrocious” and “preposterous”.

SA’s Jewish Board of Deputies has condemned the legal action, accusing the government of anti-Semitism and of “inverting reality”.

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“These charges have at their root an anti-Semitic world view, which denies Jews their rights to defend themselves,” the body’s chair, Karen Milner, said.

SA has long been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, with the ANC often linking it to its own struggle against apartheid.

It has cut diplomatic ties with Israel over its response to the 7 October Hamas attacks.

Israel has since bombarded Gaza by land, sea and air, killing more than 23 000 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.