South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, in which it alleges that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, is based mostly on rhetoric by the prime minister, ministers, MKs, and even singers that Pretoria claims prove “genocidal intent.”
Statements attributed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on this matter were erroneous since they were mistranslated from Hebrew. But that is beside the point. If intentions constitute evidence – and the ICJ considers them seriously – Israel should long ago have filed a complaint against Iran, considering its declarations of intent, plans, and actions to destroy Israel.
Here is some recent evidence: Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, threatened in late June that if Israel embarks on a “full-scale military aggression” in Lebanon against Hezbollah, “an obliterating war will ensue. All options, including the full involvement of all Resistance Fronts, are on the table.”
In 2017, Iran placed a digital clock in Tehran’s Palestine Square counting down the days to the destruction of Israel. The target date on the clock is January 1, 2040. It followed a statement made in 2015 by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei: “There will be nothing left of Israel by 2040.”
This is just one of countless declarations calling for Israel’s destruction by Iran’s leaders, presidents, ministers, parliamentarians, heads of the Revolutionary Guards, and senior military officers. They frequently state that “Israel must be wiped off the map.”
The intention to destroy Israel is not mere rhetoric. In addition to activating Hezbollah, the pro-Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen, Iran directly attacked Israel on the night between April 13-14, 2024. The Iranian military fired some 110-130 ballistic missiles, about 185 drones, and 36 cruise missiles at Israel. In recent months, it has also significantly accelerated its nuclear weapons program.
Iran is encouraged to believe it's goal can be achieved
The war in Gaza and its global ramifications have, it seems, encouraged Iran to believe that its goal can be achieved in a shorter time frame. Israeli deterrence has been severely damaged; Israel and the United States are at loggerheads over several aspects of the war in Gaza; huge demonstrations are taking place around the world against it; Western countries have recognized a Palestinian state; and cohesion in the country is once again unraveling. Iran’s threats of destruction, which many viewed as empty slogans, are now seen as much more serious.
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman claimed that Iran is “planning a Holocaust for us in the next two years.” He suggested that Tehran plans a large-scale missile attack from several fronts aiming at Israel’s annihilation, saying: “We are in the midst of an Iranian extermination program.”
Former prime minister Ehud Barak said this would happen within six months to a year, and former justice minister Gideon Sa’ar warned that Israel faces an existential threat of an Iranian-led extermination program.
ON DECEMBER 8, 1949, Iran signed the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and ratified it on August 14, 1956. Therefore, a complaint can be filed against it at the ICJ. From the moment South Africa filed its ridiculous and unfounded complaint with the ICJ, Israel should have established a joint team of experts, specializing in Iran, international law, and international organizations, and filed a well-founded complaint with the ICJ on Iran’s genocidal plans and actions against Israel.
Iran belittles international organizations, and the ICJ is politicized and biased. The purpose of an Israeli complaint against Iran at the ICJ would not be to influence it or the ICJ. Rather, it would create an international atmosphere that will enable people around the world to better understand the threats Israel is facing and the unavoidable military measures it has to take to defend itself.
A legal complaint against Iran’s plan to destroy Israel is much more substantiated than the one filed against Israel. If the ICJ accepts the complaint, Israel will mobilize international legitimacy for a preventive war against Iran and its proxies, including Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. If the ICJ rejects it, the hypocrisy and double standards that the UN and its agencies apply against Israel will be demonstrated.
The writer is a professor of international communication at Bar-Ilan University and a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.