White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Thursday that the United States sees no basis for South Africa’s allegation of genocide against Israel over civilian deaths in Gaza.
Israel spent a lot of time and money buying influence in the US government. Netanyahu has been working for literal decades to create this level of support.
You are assuming that this somehow clashes with American goals or strategy. America has done this a million times already. Their bombing of Korea constituted genocide. It killed 20% of the population. This time it's someone else doing it for them. They've outsourced genocide many times as well, like in Indonesia. Of course in addition to the genocide of the natives that the country is built on and perpetrates to this day. America is the one enforcing this situation in Palestine and the region.
Meanwhile, the IPC has declared Gaza to be in a state of near famine. With a certainty of it slipping into a famine in the coming weeks if Israel continues to block food aid at the Egyptian border.
Nope no genocide here. Definitely not a tactic straight out of the evil dictator playbook.
Hassim then listed a number of “genocidal acts” committed by Israel.
The “first genocidal act is mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza”, she said while showing photos of mass graves where bodies were buried “often unidentified”. No one – including newborns – was spared, she added.
The second genocidal act was serious bodily or mental harm inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza in violation of Article 2B of the Genocide Convention, Hassim argued. Israel’s attacks have left close to 60,000 Palestinians wounded and maimed, the majority of them women and children. Hassim argued that large numbers of Palestinian civilians, including children, have been arrested, blindfolded, forced to undress, loaded onto trucks and taken to unknown locations.
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, a second lawyer representing South Africa, argued that “Israel’s political leaders, military commanders and persons holding official positions have systematically and in explicit terms declared their genocidal intent.”
I always feel anxious seeing charges brought against countries, states or companies. It feels like an indication that specific human assholes are trying to get away with murder. It's a god start, but let's see some follow through to prosecute specific criminals.
A win in this court will put pressure on other nations to remove Israel from Palestine. For similar judgements on specific perpetrators, we have the ICC. An institution well-known to be corrupted by the US/West.