Top UN court orders Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza but stops short of ordering cease-fire
Top UN court orders Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza but stops short of ordering cease-fire
The UN's top court stops short of ordering a cease-fire in Gaza but demands that Israel limit deaths. The case was filed by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide.
Here is a pdf of the ICJ's Order of 26 January 2024.
For convenience, I will list the provisional orders below edited for ease of readability:
(1) The State of Israel shall, in accordance with its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of this Convention, in particular:
- (a) killing members of the group;
- (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
- (c ) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and
- (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(2) The State of Israel shall ensure with immediate effect that its military does not commit any acts described in point 1 above;
(3)The State of Israel shall take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip;
(4) The State of Israel shall take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip;
(5) The State of Israel shall take effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of acts within the scope of Article II and Article III of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide against members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip;
(6) The State of Israel shall submit a report to the Court on all measures taken to give effect to this Order within one month as from the date of this Order.
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Stop! Or I'll say "stop" again!
Stop would be ordering Israel to not continue their war. This is more of a "feel free to continue, but behave yourself" order.
Yeah pretty much. This is one reason I thought it was a bad idea to try to base the ICJ case on "genocide," which invites quibbles about whether particular facts constitute genocide. I thought there was a much stronger case to be made highlighting particular factual war crimes which are pretty tough to factually dispute or argue aren't war crimes.
(Side note, everyone yelled at me when I did that as if it constituted somehow defending Israel. Long story short lemmy.ml isn't full of a lot of nuanced thinking on the issue.)
I'm most interested in these specific orders:
(3)The State of Israel shall take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip;
(4) The State of Israel shall take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip;
I wouldn't be surprised if Nethanyahu, Ben-Gvir, and Smotrich each violate #3 with impunity before the end of the day, although this could inspire switching to dog-whistles and Soprano-style doublespeak which are far more acceptable to most of the West. #4, if it has any effect, will be the difference between life and death in many cases. I'm not hugely optimistic about Israel's immediate reaction to this ruling, but if this has a significant effect on their economy they could abandon this course just like they abandoned their partnership with Apartheid South Africa when the international community turned on them.
Agreed. Like I was saying I wish #3 said "stop killing civilians" and "stop stealing homes." That might be easy or hard to enforce when they inevitably ignore it, but it's a lot harder to doublespeak their way out of.
There is a huge reason to be skeptical of the efficacy of the ICJ. This however is an extremely high profile case with global attention in 2023 where the US is not quite as hegemonic in world affairs as it once was. This case could have an impact in some way, and I will be following it.
I hope so, yeah. I'm irritated at the ineffectiveness, not at the attempt.