A group of international Jewish scholars on Monday condemned the impending proceedings before the International Court of Justice regarding accusations by South Africa against Israel for genocide against the Palestinians.
The International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (IJL) said that the “baseless accusation of ‘Genocide’ leveled at Israel by South Africa is a blatant attempt to subvert international law.”
First, the IJL wrote that “Israel is engaged in a military campaign against Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist organization, which launched a widespread attack inside Israel on October 7…taking control of over twenty towns and villages while murdering and wounding thousands.”
Next, it said, “Hamas has, for decades, pursued a relentless campaign of terrorism against Israeli civilians aimed at achieving its declared aim of the destruction of the State of Israel.”
Further, the NGO emphasized that during that Hamas invasion, it unleashed unprecedented “cruelty, a rampage of murder, torture, rape, mutilation, and other atrocities, intentionally targeting civilians - babies, children, older persons, women, and men - just for being Jewish.”
Israel is acting in self-defense against Hamas
IJL noted that “in parallel, over 3,800 rockets were launched that day alone at Israeli civilian population centers. 253 people were taken hostage, ranging in age from 9 months to over 80 years. To date, 132 hostages kidnapped from Israel over 90 days ago…are still being held in Gaza.”
To date, there have now been 13,400 indiscriminate rocket attacks by Hamas on Israel, said the group.
In addition, the IJL remarked that Hamas’s attacks “are linked to a wider campaign orchestrated by an Iran-led axis which includes terror organizations such as Hezbollah and the Houthis, attacking Israel on all fronts, with the openly stated common purpose of annihilating the Jewish State.”
Moreover, the IJL explained that antisemitic rhetoric, which has played into recent anti-Israel protests, “have clearly exposed the link between the denial of Israel's right to exist and the denial of the Jewish people’s right to exist. This is the rhetoric of Genocide,” of the Jewish state’s critics.
The IJL stated. “The vicious attacks by Hamas and its allies have compelled Israel to defend itself by removing the threat of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where it has exploited its control over the area, transforming it into a giant fortified military compound, configurated with one primary goal - to attack Israel and bring about its destruction.”
“The tragic high Palestinian civilian casualty toll and level of destruction are an unfortunate, but inevitable, consequence of Hamas’ modus operandi of enmeshing its military-terror apparatus within the civilian environment,” said the IJL.
IJL said, “This includes their launching and conduct of military-terror activities from…schools, mosques, and even hospitals and UN facilities.”
Contrary to South Africa’s claims, the IJL notes that official Israeli and IDF spokespeople have declared “time and time again that the military effort is directed against Hamas and not against the people of Gaza.”
Next, IJL asserted that “This is clearly reflected in the actual conduct of the IDF…giving advance warnings to civilians of impending airstrikes and other military operations; urging the evacuation of civilians from pending combat zones; designation of a humanitarian zone within Gaza; and,” facilitating the transfer of humanitarian aid.
“South Africa further purports to prove ‘genocidal intent’ by presenting heated quotes from various Israeli politicians and other figures (made soon after the massacre of October 7th), none of which constitute official Israeli government statements or policy nor reflect the policies and practices of the IDF, said IJL.
More broadly, “by labeling Israel’s defensive war against Hamas an act of genocide, South Africa is effectively stripping the term of its meaning. If this is genocide, then many instances of the use of force in response to an armed attack could easily meet that definition.”
Coming full circle, the IJL noted that “the driving force behind the Genocide Convention was a Polish Jew, Raphael Lemkin, whose work to codify the crime of genocide was motivated by his personal experience of an actual genocide - the efforts of the Nazis and their collaborators to exterminate the Jewish people.”
It added, “The attempt to harness the Genocide Convention to target the very people whose murder led to the Convention reflects a growing phenomenon of undermining the right of the Jewish people to a state of their own.”Concluding, the IJL called on “governments, international institutions, and the international legal community to denounce and reject the cynical and dangerous misuse of the Genocide Convention.”