Israel asks the ICJ to throw out SA’s ‘curated and inaccurate’ genocide case

Well what can one say but, leave it in the hands of the Almighty God. He knows what his doing, whether it's yesterday today, or tomorrow. My belief is, there is a reason for everything that is happening in this world, it doesn't matter if we agree or not. That's my take on this Palestinian/Israel conflict which will go on until they Kingdome Come.

Canada just lost its human rights record , it is one of the countries that is always at the forefront of cases against countries for human rights violations. Their own submission to the Genocide Convention in another case is exactly like SA , but in this case they oppose . So for Canada International Law matters except in when Israel is the alleged . Wonder how they going to spin this.

This sounds like weak defense

There is something wholly obscene about South Africa taking the moral high ground in The Hague. A country mired in corruption reaching to its highest levels of government, where children starve because funding for their food has been stolen, where the murder of women goes unchecked and more than half its population are unemployed has no moral standing on any matter of international standing.

I generally watch cnn& sky nightly , read X every day and pick up an article of interest on fb . I do enjoy the early morning snippet of your editorial - most of the news covered as above . It is not unreasonable to expect payment for such good work though . Maybe there’s another interest subject to include . We are all flogged to death with politics , economics and sport , a lot of which needs accuracy testing as in News 24 eg

"The Genocide Convention was a promise to the Jewish people, all people, of ‘never again’." So once again it's all about the Jewish Holocaust. As in "there were only six million Jews killed in the concentration camps. Stuff anybody else'. BUT According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), the Holocaust was "the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jewish men, women and children by the Nazi regime and its collaborators". In addition, 11 million members of other groups were murdered during the "era of the Holocaust"

Interesting how they mention ‘embedded journalists’ in Israel’s evidence of Hamas firing out of hospitals, but nothing of the sort for the Gaza health ministry (Hamas) stats or any of the other claims of evidence against Israel when it’s been proven that multiple ‘independent journalists’ in Gaza are linked to Hamas

Daily Maverick is one of few accurate and challenging news providers for South Africans.

One should clean your own house before critisizing another's.

Wilful blindness by SA? More like wilful stupidity. I have yet to see SA express any sympathy for the Oct 7 victims.

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You are all arguing about trivia... 1) Who attacked who? (Hamas attacked Israel) 2) What was & is the stated purpose of the attack ? (To wipe out Israel / Jews) 3) How much detail do you need to work out which side is trying to commit Genocide ? 4) The reason for the South African accusation is the ANC is trying to capture the Muslim vote for the election. (I hope the Muslims are not fooled)

These asides in and out of brackets by Haffajee tells us the slant in her reporting.....comments from Knesset members for example are merely from MP's voicing their thoughts, much as our own in soon whatever

I just subscribed to News 24 to see for myself if the claims of biased reporting by Ferial Haffajee is true. And yes. A completely different story is told ( backed by recordings taken from the ICJ court proceedings yesterday). I am disappointed in DM.

The ultimate tragedy is that peoples can be lead by individuals who risk whole populations, often their own. Individuals who heap new tragedies on top of past tragedies. May the ICJ order Sinwar and Netanjahu to settle the conflict by a duel to the death with blunt knives. Both are failing in their own terrible ways.

Israel is right, throw out the case. Why is SA acting like Hamas is their love child? SA must focus on its own problems, of which there are too many, like crime, murder, mafia syndicates, spend some money on infrastructure maintenance, and start criticizing Russia and Zimbabwe if you really want to get involved in other countries affairs.

I am really disappointed that DM can publish such a biased article and to top off in your editorial you compliment Ferial on the quality of it! Did she even watch Israel's full presentation? It does not seem so and certainly is not the defense argument that I watched on TV yesterday and is profoundly under reported and one sided. Shame on you DM I have always believed that one could obtain balanced news in your publication.

A very biased article by Feriel. The constant bracketed comments reveals her seeming need to counter the arguments made by the Israeli legal team. Why does she find this necessary? Does DM have an editor who reads these articles and makes changes? I find this disappointing and expect a higher standard of journalism from DM.

It is sad to see the low level of comment that has arisen amongst some Maverick readers over this controversial topic. Words such a "kak", or accusations of anti-Semitism, simply because you do not agree with Israel's conduct of the war against the Palestians in Gaza, do not belong here, whether you agree or otherwise with the preceding comment. We all have an opinion on the topic and that should be respected. Also attacking the messenger who prepared the article under tight deadlines is totally uncalled for. If you disagree with her article, say so, and say why in a reasoned and non-emotional way.

Regardless of the side we take, SA presented strong arguments on Day 1 and Israel presented strong arguments on Day 2. We should have expected nothing less - such is the importance of this case. Reading all the comments, it is clear that our responses to this landmark case are founded in our personal biases and whether or not we believe the respective 'facts' cited. Always, we must keep in mind that the first casualty of war is Truth. For me personally, living in a world where the US and UK are quick to protect goods on ships, but do nothing to protect innocent civilians and children, is untenable. We cannot continue to hide behind 'what about' and 'who started it'. Regardless of the outcome, and notwithstanding our government's poor track record, I am deeply proud of the efforts made by the SA legal team to stop the killing.

Although I thought Team ZA had presented an excellent case, I must admit in the circumstances that Team Israel came back in the circumstances with a very good counter position. Their prime point being that South Africa had not fully exhausted consultation between the parties. This is a mere technicality as Israel would have not desisted their current form of the pursuit of the war. However, in legal matters technicalities count. The argument of pre-warning prior to bombing is a continuation of their playbook going back to the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerulsalem by the Irgun under the future Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1946. This terrorist act against British military and intelligence killed 91/92 persons. They claimed to have warned the British prior to the bomb exploding and demolishing a wing of the hotel. The current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended this act saying it was done by freedom fighters and not by terrorists. This sounds very familiar!

I have spent the last hour reading the comments appended to this article about the ICJ case. This has been most enlightening. It sounds like a group of 9th graders arguing about last night's episode of an action serial. History definitely did not figure in the curriculum of most proponents schooling and personal slurs are just below the surface of the commentary. Facts seemed to be secondary to emotion, mostly taken from social media. The main story however is who has convinced the judges of their side og the argument. This is not like a jury trial, judges must be covinced individually, and a simple majority must agree. All the bleating will change nothing.

Why do they waste taxpayers moneys knowing whell ahead it will come to nothing? This is not our war,they should warry about the 36000 black and the rest of the colours that are killed every yoear in south africa. What is worse a war or wantom killing.

Please do not forget we are living in the unprecedented times nearing to the great change in the whole Creation. That's why we need to go back to the basics and read this:‭‭ Amos‬ ‭1:6‭-‬7‬ ‭KJV‬‬ [6] Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom: [7] but I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof: And also this: ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭45:7‬ ‭KJV‬‬ [7] I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. Time of the God’s vengeance has come and is playing in front of our eyes. But those overstepping God's intentions will have to give an account before the God's court not the world's court.

So the writer makes bracketed comments about Israel's arguments and disproves any facts deemed unfavorable to the South African team. The writer doesn't do the same about Hamas. For example, the statistics about the death toll are taken hook, line and sinker. What a contradiction!

As usual the Chamas propaganda goes halfway around the world before the Israeli truth is getting its boots on, but thankfully the Almighty God of Israel is the MASSIVE UNEQUALING FACTOR in this equation. He will see that justice for Israel is done, even if the entire world turns against them. מעין

And judges in that court comes from China, Somalia, Lebanon, ZImbabwe and and, who are all countries who has been proved of not being democratic and recent evidence of gross human violations. I agree with Chief Rabbi Goldstein of Sout African. This is no court that represents true justice.

The war in Gaza is most unfortunate but to suggest it is genocide is frivilous to say the least. South Africa have politicised it with a view to the forthcoming election. However Israel will never to able to completely destroy Hamas so continuing the War is probably fruitless. Hams should return all the hostages in return for an end to hostilities.

Ms Haffejee, you report that "By 11 January, 23 357 Palestinians had been killed with more than 17000 women and children among them." Have these figures been "independently verified" as you require of the Israeli stated facts.... because it is common knowledge that these figures you mention are supplied by the Gaza Health Ministry which is run by Hamas! Not really an independent nor reliable source, would you not agree???

Can Hamas be trusted to tell the truth. What is there track record of human rights and there treatment of the people of Palestine but anyway that doesn't matter now because they have an ally that is South Africa determined to fight for it and convincing the world of their innocence and their rights and never mind Oct7 and the hostages that are still not saved.

I can but echo the comment below: Ferial Haffajee, Use your brain, not your emotions – if some extreme group in SA kills thousands of you family only because they hate them, will you retaliate? Surely not, because they might be poor disadvantaged people. Chopping up babies, dragging people behind motor cycles for km's, raping girls until pelvis is broken.....ag please man? .We will wipe them out. Only when Hamas learns to love their own children more than they HATE the Jews, will peace will come. Hatred is a devilish driving force.

A few points I would make in this debate. First, only a Zionist troll would want to start a debate as to whether it is possible to count the exact number of Palestinians killed by IDF action in Gaza. In a sense, the exact number is not important; what we do know is that far too many women and children (in particular) have been killed. Second, those citing the Israeli argument that South Africa failed to properly declare a dispute with Israel before approaching the ICJ, are simply repeating an argument which will be taken into consideration by the ICJ. At this stage it is argument, not legal fact. For what it is worth, I would submit that South Africa was not obliged to engage in a series of time-wasting meetings with Israel, given a) the urgency of the matter and b) that Israel’s position and strategy with respect to its conduct of the war on Gasa was well known. One has only to listen to Gilad Erdan’s shameful and unprofessional attack of the UN Secretary General on 24th October, as well as his subsequent speeches to the UNSC and UNGA to know that Israel’s position was entrenched, and that no exchange of views would have borne any fruit. Third, the Israeli reply to South Africa’s case was thankfully free of bombast. However, listening to a narrative that claimed that the IDF was moral and caring about avoiding unnecessary civilian casualties painted an alternative reality, not borne out by facts on the ground. One thing that we do know about the IDF is that it has the capability to launch high-precision strikes on targets. This has been demonstrated just recently with the assassination of Hamas and Hezbollah ‘targets’. It may also demonstrate a change in strategy by the IDF as world opinion shifts against Israeli conduct. When one factors this Israeli capacity into account, one has to accept that the analysis of Al Jazeera’s Marwan Bishwara is probably accurate. To paraphrase, he has remarked that “This is not a war against Hamas where the people of Gaza are collateral damage, it is a war on the people of Gaza, where Hamas is the collateral damage”. Fourth, looking to ‘the day after’ it is hard to see a peaceful solution without a radical mind-shift by the Israelis and concessions by Palestinian resistance groups. One possibility is the two-state solution based on pre 1967 borders, withdrawal of Israeli settlements from Palestinian territory and the transfer of infrastructure (undamaged) to the Palestinian State as well as reparations for damage inflicted on Gaza. The second is a unitary state where all within it enjoy equal rights, where the Defence Force and Police are fully integrated and where the unqualified right of Jewish immigration is balanced by the right to return by those affected by the 1948 Nakba.

The UN is so patently biased against Israel that it uses Gaza’s figures as accurate but not Israel’s. It’s really a useless, ineffective organisation that has no bite and has lost its relevance.

it’s a pity that SA’s case is one of “genocide” as opposed to “war crimes”. israel clearly had a “cause for war” and openly declared war against hamas. technically a genocide is unprovoked.

Every part of Apartheid Israel's argument mentions Hamas. What Hamas did (which was abhorrent) has nothing to do with the IDF killing 25 000+ innocent people. Their arguments are baseless with very weak reasoning

Israel response is predictable. Their argument that they did not want the war simply defies logic. But they are powerful nation economically, and history is on their side. The annihilation of Gaza and Palestinie continues unabated in front of world eyes, and nothing will stop it. Myopic strategy that will have far reaching consequences

Has anyone considered who is paying for South Africa's appeal to the ICJ? I have been told (no supporting evidence I should add) that the cost of the appeal and the expense of putting together and sending this delegation to the Hague is somewhere around R100 million. Such a figure would not surprise me, these legal actions tend to be hideously costly. I doubt that the SA tax payer would be happy for their hard earned money to be spent in this way when there is so much that needs to be put right at home and I also doubt that the ANC has such an amount of funds to spare. It is election year and the ANC badly needs money. Has anyone considered that the likes of Iran ( main supporter of Hamas and the major player in destabilising the Middle East) and/or Russia (very keen to distract the West from what is going on in Ukraine) may well have put up the money and persuaded South Africa, a minor player in world politics to initiate this legal action? The ANC have very openly declared that their loyalties lie with Russia and not the West. Their love for money is no secret and they will need all they can get in this election year.

Close your eyes for a moment : imagine 150 South African citizens were kidnapped and unlawfully held in Zimbabwe. We need not throw into the mix whether or not they are held by a group declared a terrorist organisation. We also need not debate whether or not these hostages are being raped murdered starved or abused. In this scenario what would the reaction of every citizen be? ( I do not ask what our government would do, the probable answer is quite frightening) imagine we do the right thing by our citizens and attempt to rescue them and in so doing innocent Zimbabweans got killed and maimed? Would we as citizens say that we must just leave our unlawfully kidnapped and held hostages there to rot? Imagine the Mauritian government now went to the ICJ and obtained an order that we stop trying to rescue our people. If it was your brother or sister, parent or child would you stop? If it was a citizen not even a relative would you stand down? Again we do not need to debate how the captives are being treated. I believe our government would have a duty to continue trying to rescue such hostages. Surely the most sensible solution to the carnage would be to release the hostages ? Any order which does not protect the hostages and their rights and does not address the rights of the citizens of both sides would be untenable and would quite reasonably be ignored. As an aside I believe that the five hundred or so million rand that is being spent on this case to the ICJ would be better spent feeding and caring for the people who are starving to death in this country. ( No that is not a fiction . Recently a woman in the Eastern Cape murdered her children and killed herself because she could no longer watch them starving to dearth. There were many follow up articles about how hundreds of people in the Eastern Cape where similarly starving to death. I think we need to worry abou our brothers and sisters and fix our crumbling house before we go running off as the saviour of the world. Allowing your citizens to starve to death and depriving them of other basic human rights whilst running around to save the world is quite frankly ridiculous. Adam

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The deaths incurred in this entire incident are really shocking. None of them would have happened if Hamas had not attacked Israel without any warning or specific reason. They planned this and the subsequent inevitable Israeli response.

In terms of the headline to this article, if the judges in this matter were to 'throw out' the matter on a technicality ... rather than the substance of the issue ... they would be guilty of doing the administration of justice ... a grave disservice.

It is unfortunate that Haffajee was incapable of reporting on Israel’s response to South Africa’s charges without revealing her personal bias. To say that 23k Palestinians have died without mentioning that about 8,000 were Hamas combatants suggests that the war is against the Palestinian people. The truth is that a 2:1 ratio of civilians to combatants is low relative to most modern wars. Haffajee’s calling Israel’s evidence of Hamas using hospital infrastructure as “Never independently verified,” but quoting Hamas’s figures as the gospel also show her bias. (Would she suggest that Hamas would not or has not done such a thing,) Haffajee’s one sided reporting shows the same curated and inaccurate approach as South Africa’s representatives did at the ICJ. What she seems not to get is that the implication of her embellishment is that without it, the argument made by Israel would win.

Israel said it had killed 8500 terrorists in Gaza and 1000 in Israel on Oct7th. We also know that a missed fired rocket by the IPJ killed 500 in the ground of a mosque. Hamas does not distinguish between civilians and terrorists killed, even some of their teenagers were classed as children. They are the worst type of liars trying to fool all that that they are victims and Israelis are agressors.

How many civilian casualties were suffered by all sides in the Second World War, in Vietnam, the invasions of Afghanistan by both Russia and the USA, Iraq, Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, and every regional and local conflict in between? War is bloody and dirty. Innocent people die. Children die, babies die. Certainly Israeli civilians, children and babies died when the Hamas terrorists invaded. Undoubtedly and inevitably greater numbers of Palestinian civilians, children and babies have died since. The propaganda from both sides cannot obfuscate the reality and arguments about numbers are pointless. I do find it jaw droppingly staggering that a country like South Africa that cannot adequately feed, house, provide utilities to or protect its own people from violent crime or the rampant corruption and criminality of its political leaders can still claim the moral high ground in relation to any other country. This legal action against Israel is a political stunt, doomed to fail and a further waste of resources that should be more appropriately directed to compel South Africa’s political leadership to address their own moral and political failures.

As a South African of 93 years, I have inevitably lived to see many wicked/foolish acts committed by a SA government. I haven't witnessed any of such acts equalling my disapproval/disgust as the vast SA "legal" team presently performs at The Hague, before what is mistakenlydesignated as an International Criminal Court of "Justice". My reasons: 1] Israel is busy committing a legitimate act of war 2] The war is waged by Israel against an evil terrorist body in the form of Hamas, the only one which could rightly be convicted of striving for genocide of the Jews; 3] The Court, before which Israel is bound to appear, is a disreputable body set up by the United Nations, which itself has for almost its entire life earned little or no record of achieving justice and peace in the world, and 4] Worst of all, that such is the composition of the relevant court, the judgement of the court will be likely to find in favour of the government of our country, which itself has demonstrated time and time again to be that is has been riddled with corruption, misdeeds and incompetence. Long retired Acting Judge Andrew Lang S.C.

There is no doubt that the bloodshed needs to be stopped in Palestine. I support that, but to think that we understand the conflict that has been Israel/Palestine for more than 70 years is naive. Ever since I can remember it has been a cycle of attack and retaliation and that has been going around and around. Something has to be done vastly differently to stop that. Taking hostages, raping, torturing and murdering on both sides is unacceptable. What I do find rather peculiar is that South Africa decides to point fingers at Israel with an accusation of genocide. Last I checked, thousands of farmers have systematically been killed INSIDE South Africa's borders since 1994. Just because South Africa is not in an official "war" doesn't make that any less of a genocide by the very definition of the word. How about we first get our own house in order by actually dealing with the rampant violent crime within South Africa before going about grand-standing on the world stage? Our very own majority political parties are singing songs like "Kill the Boer" and "Bring me my machine (gun)", which are then conventiently not classed as hate speech. How blatantly arrogant and denialist can it get? Get your own house in order before you dare to go pointing fingers at others.

Hamas’ avowed intent is the total destruction of the State of Israel. If that is not reason to dismiss South Africa’s mendacious court action, then the law is an Ass. The brutality of the Hamas attack on the 7th October beggars belief - that was definitely a precursor to genocide. They are a genocidal terrorist organisation pure and simple.

A few comments from my side….an entity (whether a terrorist organization or sovereign state does not matter) commit barbaric acts against the population of a nearby state after being repeatedly warned that there will be consequences. This entity then chose to use their own civilians to be their human shield against retaliation actions of the nearby sovereign state. They also continue to fire missiles at the general population of the nearby state. The nearby state decide that enough is enough and the best option of retaliation is to go for the total annihilation of the entity (mentioned in my first sentence). In the process thousands of civilians are being killed either directly or indirectly (starvation, lack of medical care etc.). There are definitely two parties in the wrong here albeit for different reasons. If the rest of the world wants to intervene to stop the killing of civilians in both countries they need to force both parties in this battle to stop (Israel and Hamas…representing Palestine). Whether this can be enforced is impossible to say. Trying to force the hand of just one side is a waste of time. Now is the time for high level mediation but it seems nobody (so far) has shown an appetite for this. The rest of the world (including our government) should be ashamed that they turned to choosing sides rather than try to solve this conflict. In the process more and more division is caused (just read through the comments on this article) and what do we achieve with this attitude? Secondly it is saddening to see the lack of common sense and decency displayed in the arguments by so many commenting on this article. Using expletives to argue a case or to call people names will never contribute to positive debate. If you disagree with someone tell them you disagree and the reasons for your opinion. Adult debate is there to try and persuade people that your opinion is the most valid one by using common sense, logic and facts and not by swearing and deliberately offending/insulting other parties. Just my 2 cents…..

It's a relief to hear what Israel has to say . In its defence and response...as with everything that has happened in these past 100 plus days has been, in defence of itself ..The behaviour, murder ,rape and the war itself started by the very Hamas that Palestinians voted in themselves ..to govern and shows the obvious hatred that the Arab( always ) has had toward the Jews .. if only someone would open a Bible or a secular history book of the ancient and more modern history of the Jewish people . But ....... This is all a thoroughly spiritual battle ,and always has been ....One filled with hatred toward another ... Good to read the sense heard from the defence given by the Israeli lawyers ..Again ... defending itself for something they did not want in the first place ...attack !!!