This is what the International Court of Justice confirmed from The Hague in a landmark ruling that is another political blow to Israel. In war, the genocidaires assume that their plans for quick victory are going up in smoke. The casualties of Israeli soldiers raised questions. Netanyahu is questioned, but he is holding on. Is there a new momentum in the war? Zionism is a political and ideological blight on humanity.
By Ruben Tzanoff
The State of Israel has received a major international political defeat, as the UN’s highest court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), has recognized that “at least some of the acts to have been committed appear to be capable of falling within the provisions of the Genocide Convention.” 1 According to Judge Joan Donoghue, president of the ICJ, “The court considers that the civilian population remains extremely vulnerable.” And “that the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the strip is at serious risk of further deterioration before the court renders its final judgment”. The Court’s decision also orders that speech inciting genocide be prosecuted, that medical services and humanitarian assistance be allowed immediately into the Palestinian territory, and that Israel report within one month on the results of the implementation of the measures. In short, The Hague has ruled interim measures for the aggressor state to take “all necessary measures” to “prevent” any act of genocide from being committed in the Gaza Strip. The court thus responded positively to South Africa’s submission of a “pattern of genocidal conduct” and rejected Israel’s request to dismiss the complaint.
Compliance with the ruling must be enforced
Israel’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, suggested that the ruling has the value of “a piece of toilet paper” and stated that “International law means nothing to us”. To be expected coming from the genocidaires. Although the court has not ordered a halt to the war and has not yet ruled on whether Israel has committed genocide, it is an important political defeat as it indicates who the victims are and who the victimizers are. The decisions are binding, but the Zionists reject them, so it is necessary to demand that governments put pressure on Israel by all means to comply with them. More than ever, governments must break diplomatic and economic relations with Israel and stop sending arms there. The key will be to multiply and extend the solidarity mobilizations and to add to the claims the demand for the compliance with the ruling.
Meanwhile, the attack continues
According to Qatar, negotiations between Israel and Hamas are still ongoing, although from distant positions. Meanwhile, the siege of Khan Younis blocks the escape route for Palestinian civilians. Thousands of people are trying to reach Rafah, where there are more than one million displaced people surviving in the worst conditions imaginable. The Nasser hospital, the largest hospital still operating in the strip, has set aside the courtyards of the health center for the burial of corpses due to the impossibility of taking them to a cemetery. Two other smaller hospitals are blocked by Israeli forces who are preventing the care of new wounded. Facilities of the Palestinian humanitarian organization Red Crescent Society were hit by artillery fire and some of its staff were arrested. Still, the attackers do not have it all their own way.
No quick victory and no hostages released
Former Chief of Staff and one of the five members of the war cabinet, Gadi Eisenkot, declared, “Whoever speaks of an absolute defeat of Hamas is not speaking the truth,” “it is impossible to bring the hostages back alive in the near future without a deal.” Four other generals confessed to The New York Times that it is no longer possible to “save the hostages and destroy Hamas” because a quick victory is out of reach. And the Israeli army reported the death of 24 soldiers in a single day, 21 of them reservists who fell in a single action, something that was described as “a disaster” and brought the number of invading casualties to 217 soldiers. As a result, the Minister of Defense prepares the ground for the acceptance of more casualties saying: “the fall of combatants is a requirement to achieve the objectives”. These are some of the elements that have led various analysts to mention the beginning of a new moment.
A change in the war field?
The assertions that install the idea of a “sweeping” advance are partial because: they have not managed to defeat Hamas, to subdue the population, to free the hostages and they have even received attacks from “controlled” areas. The attackers are cowards who drop bombs from the heights, besiege cities and fire from tanks, but, in order to advance towards their objectives, their soldiers will have to go deep into the streets, into the ruins of buildings, into tunnels and face the resistance hand to hand. They are aware that this entails great dangers; that is why they turned on the alarm lights with the result of the raid in which their soldiers were killed.
Netanyahu in the spotlight
Another issue that has once again come to public attention is Netanyahu’s situation. The far-right winger Netanyahu came into his third term in office with many questions that have grown. The October 7 Hamas attack on Israel shattered his main argument in 16 years of power: that he was the only one capable of protecting the country from its enemies. The setbacks multiplied as the Prime Minister and his propagandists have failed to convince millions of people that they are “victims who are only defending themselves against the Palestinians”; on the contrary, the ICJ confirmed that Israel commits genocide against the Palestinian people. Its partners point to it for not respecting the conventions of war and blame it for allowing Qatar to send tens of millions of dollars to Hamas to erode the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. Internally, there are some cracks, expressed in the existence of sectors calling for elections and in the demands of the families of the hostages.
How long will they defend a war criminal?
The political survival of the Israeli leader depends to a large extent on his succeeding in freeing all the hostages and he has not been able to do so by force. He depends on a quick and complete defeat of Hamas and he has not achieved that either. These are some of the circumstantial reasons why he wants the war to drag on until he gets some of what he promised. He is holding on because imperialism sustains him and because the internal cracks are not yet big enough to drive him out. To support Netanyahu is to defend a war criminal, a genocidaire.
Zionism at the level of the worst of mankind
After supporting the far-right of Netanyahu and his party for 16 years, Israelis should distance themselves from this obscurantist and his party and throw them out with strikes and mobilizations. They should reject the massacres and demand an end to the aggression in Gaza, something that millions of people around the world are doing. After 75 years of colonialism, they should draw radical historical conclusions and break with the sinister project that founded the State of Israel based on the appropriation of foreign territories, ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian people. Failure to do so means continuing with our hands increasingly stained with blood. The only way out to achieve a just and lasting peace is to defeat Zionism and reverse the consequences of its criminal colonialism with the establishment of a unique, secular, democratic, non-racist and socialist Palestine.
1. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, in force in 152 countries, even Israel, states: “Genocide means any of the acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The crime does not prescribe, but still the court may take years to investigate the case completely.