Call on the Irish Government to support South Africa's case before the ICJ
Call on the Irish Government to support South Africa's case before the ICJ
to email TDs and Senators calling for both Houses of the Oireachtas to debate South Africa's recent submissions to the International Court of Justice, and for Ireland to support South Africa's request for emergency orders to prevent genocide in Gaza.
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Dear TDs and Senators
Ireland has not only a moral obligation, but also a legal obligation under the 1948 Genocide Convention, to act to prevent the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
There is no time to lose as Israel’s indiscriminate bombing, shooting, starvation, dehydration, torture, and denial of healthcare, communication, movement, shelter and other existential needs of children and adults in Gaza continues apace.
I call on you immediately to read the recent submissions of South Africa to the International Court of Justice, and to return from the Oireachtas Christmas recess to debate South Africa’s factual and legal arguments in both Houses of the Oireachtas.
Shamefully, Ireland is not yet among the countries that have stated or communicated with Israel that the crime of genocide appears to be occurring or imminent in Gaza.
Publicly acknowledging that genocide appears to be occurring or imminent in Gaza is the most basic step that I expect to see my Government taking in furtherance of Ireland’s obligation to prevent genocide where it is at risk of occurring.
More practically, I urge you to ensure that Ireland supports South Africa’s case. Before next Thursday's provisional measures hearing, Ireland should issue a public statement in support of South Africa's application for a ceasefire order and other emergency genocide prevention measures.
In support of South Africa's full case, which will continue after next week's emergency hearings, Ireland should seek to intervene in order to state its understanding of the Genocide Convention's requirements, and/or Ireland should bring its own case which the ICJ could join to South Africa's. I call also for the Irish Government immediately to take diplomatic and economic measures to sanction Israel for its behaviour.
Genocide is defined by the Genocide Convention as:
“any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (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; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
South Africa’s submissions, which are detailed and clearly evidenced, show the intent behind Israel’s widespread and indiscriminate destruction of life and the conditions for living in Gaza.
Through both actions and words, Israel demonstrates its intent to target Palestinian children, women and men in Gaza as such, i.e., because they are Palestinians in Gaza.
South Africa’s submissions highlight, for example, that:
In preparing Israeli military forces for land invasion in October and November, Prime Minister Netanyahu referred repeatedly to the Biblical story of the total destruction of Amalek by the Israelites, the relevant Bible passage reading: “Spare no one, but kill alike men and women, infants and sucklings, oxen and sheep, camels and asses.”
In October, President Herzog gave a press conference stating: “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true…and we will fight until we break their backbone.”
Minister of Defence Gallant has informed Israeli military troops on the Gaza border that he had “released all the restraints” and that: “Gaza won’t return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything.”
Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, Nissim Vaturi, has stated: ‘Now we all have one common goal—erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth.”
Israeli Army Reservist Major General, former Head of the Israeli National Security Council, and adviser to the Defence Minister, Giora Eiland, has publicly advocated “such a huge pressure on Gaza, that Gaza will become an area where people cannot live.” Eiland has repeatedly stated in the media that Gaza should be made uninhabitable, and has repeatedly emphasised that there should be no distinction between Hamas combatants and Palestinian civilians.
These are only some of the statements of intent I urge you to read for yourself—and to debate, immediately, in the Houses of the Oireachtas with a view to supporting South Africa’s legal action.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, among other UN humanitarian officials, has described the situation in Gaza as “apocalyptic”.
Ireland's two independent UN Special Rapporteurs on human rights, Siobhan Mullally and Mary Lawlor, were among 15 UN Special Rapporteurs and 21 members of UN Working Groups who on 16 November 2023 issued a specific call for the “international community to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people”.
The experts’ statement “expressed alarm over discernibly genocidal and dehumanising rhetoric coming from senior Israeli government officials, as well as some professional groups and public figures, calling for the ‘total destruction’, and ‘erasure’ of Gaza, the need to ‘finish them all’ and force Palestinians from the West Bank and east Jerusalem into Jordan.” The experts warned “Israel has demonstrated it has the military capacity to implement such criminal intentions”, and stated their “profound concern” at the “failure of the international system to mobilise to prevent genocide”.
South Africa’s submissions begin by recognising the gravity of the country’s decision to initiate proceedings against Israel at the ICJ. They unequivocally condemn and characterise as an atrocity crime under international law the targeting of Israeli civilians and other nationals, and hostage-taking, by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.
However, rightly, South Africa’s submissions emphasise that genocide is never, ever justified—and that all parties to the 1948 Genocide Convention are obliged to act to prevent its occurrence.
The Irish people, and the Irish Government, have consistently voiced their support for a peace process which recognises Palestinians’ and Israelis’ equal right to exist. It is beyond time for concrete action.
PLEASE act. There is no time to lose.