Inside Israel's plan to quash South Africa's Gaza genocide case | Axios |

The Israeli Foreign Ministry is instructing its embassies to press diplomats and politicians in their host countries to issue statements against South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice that accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, according to a copy of an urgent cable obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: The cable, sent by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, illustrates Israel's diplomatic action plan ahead of next week's ICJ hearing: to create international pressure on the court to not issue an injunction that orders Israel to suspend its military campaign in Gaza.

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Proceedings instituted by South Africa against Israel

THE HAGUE: On Thursday 11 and Friday 12 January 2024, the International Court of Justice will hold public hearings at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the seat of the Court, in the proceedings instituted by South Africa against Israel on 29 December 2023.

It is recalled that South Africa filed an Application instituting proceedings against Israel concerning alleged violations by Israel of its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the "Genocide Convention") in relation to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip (see press release 2023/77).

The hearings will be devoted to the Request for the indication of provisional measures contained in South Africa's Application. In its Request, South Africa asks the Court to indicate provisional measures in order to "protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention" and "to ensure Israel's compliance with its obligations under the Genocide Convention not to engage in genocide, and to prevent and to punish genocide".

The Holocaust and Other Genocides

Since Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide after the destruction of the European Jewry during World War II, the United Nations signed the Genocide Convention in 1948. Though the Convention aimed at preventing genocide in the future, large-scale mass murder returned on all continents, in Cambodia and Rwanda as some of the most notorious cases.

Rafal Lemkin Law of Genocide Nuremberg Trials

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