South Africa: Genocide Can't Be Justified Under Any Condition

Gaza/DOK WHO via UN

JAKARTA - Lawyers representing South Africa in a trial for Israel's genocide lawsuit at the International Court (ICJ) Vaughan Lowe said genocide could not be justified under any circumstances.

One of the lawyers from the South African delegation said that no matter how big the threat to Israelis from Palestinian groups, the destruction of them could not be justified.

"No matter what Palestinian groups in Gaza have done, and no matter how big the threat to Israelis is, genocide attacks on all of Gaza and its entire population, with the intention of destroying them cannot be justified," Lowe said.

Lowe said no exceptions could be made in temporary action that would allow a country to engage in actions that could violate its obligations under the Genocide Convention.

Lowe said the most important thing now is evidence showing that Israel's actions have violated its obligations based on genocide beliefs, and asserted that Israel intends to continue their actions.

He said Israel might say that it would comply with all obligations under the Genocide Convention and orders from the courts were not required.

However, in previous cases, Lowe continued, the court argued that the unilateral statement did not eliminate the risk of irreparable prejudice or negate the need for a court order.

"In this case, one of the reasons to doubt the effectiveness of these unilateral efforts is Israel's inability to see that they have made mistakes in destroying Gaza and its people," Lowe said.

Another reason is that Israel's deviation or reinterpretation of Israel's unilateral efforts could have dire consequences so that the risk could not be taken, "he added. A hearing on Israel's genocide lawsuit against the Palestinians filed by South Africa began on Thursday at the International Court in The Hague, Netherlands. The trial begins with arguments from the South African delegation and will continue the next day with defense arguments from Israel.