ICJ Verdict DESTROYS Israel’s Defense But Avoids Verifiable Measures

Today’s ICJ verdict at The Hague was good and bad news at the same time. On the one hand, the court completely obliterated the defence of Israel’s lawyers, who argued that the court had no jurisdiction because there was no pre-existing dispute and that if anyone had committed genocide, it was Hamas. The court completely threw out these very flimsy attempts at shielding Israel from liability. the court clearly stated that it was in charge of these matters and that what Israel is doing might potentially be a case of genocide (although at this point, it clearly stated it was not considering wether this crime actually took place or not). The judges established that genocide might potentially be taking place, which is the strongest possible conclusion they could come up with. However, when it came to the provisional measures, the court decided that it had not to follow the actually demanded measures by South Africa but was within its rights to come up with its own measures. In the end, the court just demands that Israel live up to its obligations under the Genocide Conventions and halt any actions that might infringe upon those. Israel also has to compile a report detailing how it intends to safeguard the convention. This is a very lenient sentence. Isreal already claims it’s not in breach of the convention and will simply keep claiming that without any verifiable or tangible outcome. So while this is an important conclusion, the actual outcome means pretty much nothing to the actual Genocide in Gaza. While this will give more motivation to political protesters, it is not a legal decision that has the potential to change any of the genocidal realities on the ground.