Skip to content

Global Rally Against Complicity in genocide; Defund genocide NOT aid to the genocided

International Lawyer and Lawfare Advocate

Greetings of solidarity to fellow activists and comrades.

The situation in occupied Palestine is at a precipice and our responsibility as the global community is to ensure that Palestinian lives and society is preserved and protected. The South African Minister of International Relations and Co-operation, Ms. Naledi Pandor has made this call following the landmark judgment that was delivered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last week, Friday 26 January 2024.

After listening to state parties submissions to the United Nations Security Council, the apartheid and genocide state of Israel together with the United States have now become genocide DENIALISTS, making all forms of excuses and giving warped and incorrect interpretations of the obligations imposed by the apex court for the provisional measures it  has imposed to ensure the protection and preservation of Palestinians as a group  and society in the Gaza strip.

The court the recognized the risk and danger of those rights being affected which the Republic of South Africa sought protection  in terms of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (‘the Genocide Convention’) and the link to the provisional measures sought. There is a high risk of these rights being vanquished in part or as a whole by the time when the merits  of  South Africa’s case is adjudicated.

Provisional measures  were imposed by the court and Israel must provide reasons within one month of order of the judgment to show to the court and the applicant what measures it has undertaken to prevent such imminent harm and risk to the protection of those rights.

Under this backdrop it is inexcusable and indefensible  that certain states who are now also incriminated by their genocidal enabling of an ultra-right  fascist regime  in the supply of billions of US dollars in military arms, weapons and munitions which have been unleashed predominantly on a civilian population in Gaza, have now taken this ghastly step to suspend funding of the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA).

We are aware of the important work this agency does in alleviating the suffering of Palestinians  in a region devasted by war, conflict and genocide.

In March 2022, we had lodged an extensive criminal complaint raising attention to terrorism and related activities which are unlawful, including a pattern of organised crime where individuals enlisted in the Israeli Defence Force and pro Zionist institutions are currently under investigation for violating the laws of Foreign Military Assistance,  Anti-Terrorism and the prevention of organised crime.

The IDF’s crimes also extend to the West Bank, and we have seen the surge of raids on Palestinian refugee camps and neighbourhoods since October 7, including the increased detention of prisoners and child prisoners not afforded any legal representation, their ill treatment and torture facilitated  by the Israeli Security apparatus and the Israeli Prison Services.

We must raise the atrocious double standards of Western countries like the United States and European states who aid and abet criminality and war mongering,  who are criminally responsible for the  destruction in Gaza and the status quo of belligerent occupation, imposed apartheid policies and practices, and settler colonialism in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Our demand is an immediate ceasefire, and a complete arms embargo to prevent the  re- weaponization of a fascist regime that is perpetrating war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, aggression, apartheid and genocide.

As the international community and global conscionable citizens of the world, we must do everything in our power to hold our countries to account in ensuring the  ICJ judgment is properly implemented and enforced by member states.

Israeli leaders, war commanders and foot soldiers of IDF units, including western state leaders and governments openly enabling genocide, our message must be clear that such criminal actions can no longer continue with impunity.

Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Regional Director at Amnesty International back in 2018 , said:

“For four weeks the world has watched in horror as Israeli snipers and other soldiers, in full-protective gear and behind the fence, have attacked Palestinian protesters with live ammunition and tear gas. Despite wide international condemnation, the Israeli army has not reversed its illegal orders to shoot unarmed protesters.” 

Furthermore, she added that the international community “must act concretely and stop the delivery of arms and military equipment to Israel”, and that inaction would “continue to fuel serious human rights abuses against thousands of men, women and children suffering the consequences of life under Israel’s cruel blockade of Gaza”. Israel is one of Washington’s closest allies and a major buyer of US-made military equipment, but European Union nations, including, France, Germany, the UK and Italy, have licensed large volumes of military equipment for Israel”.

In The Gaza Docket (Operation Cast lead 2008-2009) lodged with South African  authorities regarding unlawful conduct of the  IDF, we had alerted authorities of the IDF’s use of ‘White Phosphorous’,   a highly incendiary substance causing burns to human skin and the use of        ‘Nail Bombs’  and ‘Flechettes’.

An account by a treating doctor, Dr Emran says with reference to a series of photographs for evidence, stated:

“The victims were children who I treated in Gaza. The nail bombs are used by the Israeli army to penetrate the human body and evoke the maximum damage possible to the body in the course of the penetrating nails. Sometimes the nails remain in the body and sometimes they exit after the damage has been caused.” 

I refer to this inhumane use of weapons after recalling an Al Jazeera report where a doctor treated casualties emanating from the blast outside the Al Ahli Aarab Hospital in central Gaza,  where over 500 Palestinian civilians were killed.  The doctor had also accounted of victims wounds who had succumbed to their injuries, had clean limb amputations in compacted explosives of what appeared to be metal diamond blades.

In the UN Fact Finding mission Report – Operation Cast lead 2008-2009                                              

PARA 1886. A/HRC/12/48 – page 407:

“What makes the application and assessment of proportionality difficult in respect of many of the events investigated by the Mission is that deeds by the Israeli armed forces and words of military and political leaders prior to and during the operations indicate that, as a whole, they were premised on a deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed not at the enemy but at the “supporting infrastructure.” In practice, this appears to have meant the civilian population”.

PARAGRAPH 1887: “The timing of the first Israeli attack, at 11.30 a.m. on a weekday, when children were returning from school and the streets of Gaza were crowded with people going about their daily business, appears to have been calculated to create the greatest disruption and widespread panic among the civilian population. The treatment of many civilians detained or even killed while trying to surrender is one manifestation of the way in which the effective rules of engagement, standard operating procedures and instructions to the troops on the ground appear to have been framed in order to create an environment in which due regard for civilian lives and basic human dignity was replaced with disregard for basic international humanitarian law and human rights norms.”

Israel has intentionally and wrongfully maimed and killed thousands of civilians since 2008-2009, (“Cast Lead”).

The international community is bound to the ICJ judgment  The Court considers that, by their very nature,  some of the provisional measures sought by South Africa are aimed at preserving the plausible rights it asserts on the basis of the Genocide Convention in the present case, namely the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts mentioned in Article III, and the right of South Africa to seek Israel’s compliance with the latter’s obligations under the Convention. Therefore, a link exists between the rights claimed by South Africa that the Court has found to be plausible, and at least some of the provisional measures requested.

Israel has failed dismally in its obligations under international humanitarian law and the countries which have paused funding must immediately reinstate their donorships to UNWRA.

We must also encourage other countries including the Arab states to advance and increase their humanitarian efforts to UNWRA, where shortfalls are experienced to alleviate the dire conditions of human suffering in Gaza.

Latest posts by Ziyaad Ebrahim Patel (see all)