The Hague Rare ICJ litigation could help empower 75-year-old genocide convention

Just a month after its 75th anniversary, the genocide convention could be entering a new age of greater relevance as the international court of justice convenes in The Hague to consider the Israel-Gaza war.

- Julian Borger

South Africa has brought a case to the ICJ accusing Israel of committing genocide in its military response to the 7 October Hamas attack that killed hundreds of Israeli civilians. The South African case includes references to the Israeli use of blanket bombing and the cutting of food, water and medicine supplies to Gaza.

"The acts are all attributable to Israel, which has failed to prevent genocide and is committing genocide in manifest violation of the genocide convention," the case alleges.

Israel has signalled its determination to rebuff the charges, which Tel Aviv and Washington have rejected as baseless. It could take the court years to make a ruling, but it could also issue "provisional measures" requiring actions, such as a ceasefire, to mitigate the risk of genocide.

The Israeli government could ignore the measures, but to do so would cause enormous reputational harm and loss of influence on the world stage for Israel and its main backer, the US.

The intervention by South Africa, a state not involved in or directly harmed by the war in Gaza, is extremely rare, but it is not the first. The precedent was created by the Gambia, when it took Myanmar to the ICJ in 2019 accusing it of genocide against the Rohingya. In 2021 the court imposed provisional measures on Myanmar, requiring the junta to direct its forces not to commit genocide, and to preserve all relevant evidence.