Leftist Chile to Join South Africa's Hague Case Against Israel
FRANCESCO DEGASPERI/AFP via Getty Images
Leftist President Gabriel Boric of Chile announced Saturday that his country would join a controversial case led by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel, accusing the nation of “genocide” for its self-defense operations against Hamas.
“We will never, never stop being indignant over the indiscriminate and absolutely disproportionate actions against innocent civilians, particularly Palestinian women and children, that the Israeli military is conducting,” Boric said during his State of the Nation address on Saturday.
WATCH — Maher: Pro-Hamas Protesters Should Get “a Taste” of How Hamas, Iran Treat Women:
Boric went on to declare that his radical leftist administration would “raise its voice to condemn criminal violence, terrorism, genocide, aggression in all corners of the world.”
“Fighting crime, the defense of life, and of human rights have no political color, nor nationality,” he affirmed, before announcing new government initiatives to legalize abortion and euthanasia.
Boric asserted, following his confirmation that Chile would support the South African case, that he also condemned Hamas.
“I want to leave very clear that there is no room for ties and that I don't accept that I have to choose between barbarities,” the Chilean president said. “We condemn, without room for doubt, Hamas's terrorist attacks and we also demand the liberation of the hostages currently in its power.”
The Jewish Community of Chile, a civil society organization, condemned Boric following the announcement, calling his decision to support South Africa a “grave error from the judicial point of view and of foreign policy.”
“We feel profoundly affected by decisions that appear to prioritize ideological interests over the wellbeing of all citizens,” the statement continued. “These decisions not only distort reality and feed polarization, but also contribute to the concerning increase in antisemitism in our country.”
The government of South Africa filed a case before the ICJ against Israel in December, accusing the country of violating the U.N. Genocide Convention by declaring war on the jihadist terror organization Hamas in light of its invasion of Israel on October 7, leaving 1,200 dead in its wake and an estimated 130 people held hostage in an unknown state at press time. Extensive evidence, including videos filmed by the terrorists themselves, indicate that the Hamas siege featured the commission of widespread crimes against humanity, including the massacre of entire families in their homes, acts of infanticide, gang rapes, and the desecration of corpses.
Hamas is an explicitly genocidal organization, dedicated to destroying the state of Israel and eliminating the Jewish presence in the Middle East.
WATCH — Fetterman: Civilian Deaths from Rafah Strike “Awful” But Hamas Hides Behind Civilians, Kept Munitions There:
Israel responded to the attack by entering the Hamas stronghold of Gaza and systematically dismantling Hamas terror enclaves, including weapon transport tunnels and command centers. The ICJ case claims that Israel's response to October 7 is not legitimate. South African lawyers argued that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)'s operations in Gaza were intended to destroy the Palestinian population there, rather than to eliminate the threat of second Hamas invasion. Much of South Africa's case has prompted global criticism, including attorney Tembeka Ngcukaitobi misquoting the Bible in an argument claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an allegedly clear call to genocide. South Africa's legal team is also arguing Israel has no right to self-defense because it is “occupying” Gaza.
“If there had been acts that may be characterized as genocidal, then they have been carried out against Israel,” Israeli legal adviser Tal Becker told the ICJ in his initial defense in January, accusing South Africa of using language “barely distinguishable from Hamas’s own rejectionist rhetoric” to deny the legitimacy of the Israeli state.
“If the claim of the applicant now is that in the armed conflict between Israel and Hamas, Israel must be denied the ability to defend its citizens, then the absurd upshot of South Africa’s argument is this,” Becker argued, “under the guise against Israel of the allegation of ‘genocide,’ this court is called to end operations against an organization that pursues an actual genocidal agenda.”
Despite challenges to the South African case, several nations have stepped up to join the case at the ICJ. The first to do so was Nicaragua, a repressive communist state currently actively persecuting Christians. Colombia, where leftist President Gustavo Petro has compared Israel's anti-Hamas war to Nazi Germany, also joined, as did Libya.
WATCH — CNN's, NYT's Sanger: Netanyahu “Probably Right” About Needing Rafah Operation to Destroy Hamas:
In May, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – the most vocally pro-Hamas leader in the world outside of Iran – announced Turkey would file to join the South Africa case.
“Hamas is not a terrorist organization, it is a group of mujahideen defending their lands,” Erdogan proclaimed on October 25, less than a month after the siege of Israel.
The ICJ is the top United Nations international court, tasks with handling disputes between nations. Unlike the International Criminal Court (ICC) – which tries individual persons and can only process cases involving crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide – only state actors can be parties to ICJ, which often involve territorial disputes or commercial disagreements. Both Israeli leaders and leaders of the Hamas terrorist organization are facing a probe that could lead to their prosecution at the ICC but, as Hamas is not a state actor, the ICJ has not acted against it.
International law treats genocide as a jus cogens norm, or peremptory norm, meaning that it is universally considered a crime and any court can process it. South Africa and Israel are both parties to the U.N. Genocide Convention, the basis for South Africa's complaint.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
Source link