South Africa has filed its legal memorial (plaintiff’s brief) in its Genocide Convention case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, reported to amount to more than 700 pages without Annexes.
FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle@illinois.edu
Boyle is professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. He successfully represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at the International Court of Justice in its Genocide Convention case against Yugoslavia. He has been interviewed by MSNBC, BBC, CBS News and other outlets on the South Africa case.
He said today: “While the rules of the Court mandate that the filing today is confidential for the time being, it is doubtlessly substantial. Israel will try to stall the proceedings, but given my experience with the Court, it will ultimately fail on the merits. … Still, this phase of the proceedings could take a year.
“Nonetheless, there are things that could and should be done in the meantime. Other States Parties to the Genocide Convention should sue Israel and request new provisional measures of protection for the Palestinians. Israel has violated three prior orders from the Court. It has also violated the decision on Rafah of May. Just after that decision, Biden put out his ridiculous statement that Israel had agreed to a ceasefire, which it obviously didn’t. The Biden administration’s phony ‘ceasefire negotiations’ maneuvers have simply bought Israel more time to commit more crimes, including its recent annihilation of northern Gaza.” See IPA news release from June: “U.S. ‘Ceasefire’ a ‘Ploy to Sabotage the Rule of Law.’”
“Given Israel’s lack of respect for decisions of the Court, it becomes imperative that these decisions have teeth. The U.S. veto at the UN Security Council has prevented that body from doing its job. So, the UN General Assembly should utilize its Uniting for Peace procedure to take control of the situation and recommend an arms embargo and economic sanctions against Israel as well as other measures. That’s what was done to apartheid South Africa because of its illegal occupation of Namibia.”