Israel has received a judicial setback in The Hague that puts its actions in Gaza even more under scrutiny. For the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the risk of genocide against the Palestinians of the strip is “plausible” and, faced with the possibility of “irreparable damage,” it orders it to apply a series of precautionary measures.
But even if the reading of the ruling, which lasted 35 minutes, focused on the violence suffered by Gazans due to the attacks of the Jewish State, in addition to the incendiary rhetoric of its leaders, the decision of the United Nations court leaves a loophole for the Israel’s relief by not explicitly ordering an immediate ceasefire.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Beniamin Netanyahu, seized on this to praise that the “vile attempt to deny Israel” its right to defend itself was “justly rejected.” With that grandiloquence, the president considered that “the accusation of genocide made against Israel is not only false, but scandalous,” and that “the court’s willingness to deliberate on it is a mark of shame that will not be erased for generations.”
“On the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day,” Netanyahu concluded, “as Prime Minister of Israel I promise again: never again.”
And the date of the ruling has symbolism. On the verge of another commemoration of the murder of six million European Jews at the hands of the Nazis during the Second World War, precisely for which the legal figure of genocide was created, the State founded for the Jewish people is accused today of being committing that crime against another people.
Trying to unite these two points, Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir accused the ICJ of being “anti-Semitic,” of having remained “silent during the Holocaust” and “seeking not justice, but the persecution of the Jewish people.” ignoring or ignoring that the ICJ was established in 1945, that is, just after the Shoah (the Holocaust).
For the far-right and ultranationalist leader – who, according to local press reports, ignored an order from Netanyahu not to comment on the Hague ruling before the official government statement was published – Israel “should not listen” to the failed and “must continue defeating the enemy until complete victory.” That “total victory” that Netanyahu also promised in his message, as did Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who assured that the army “will continue to operate to dismantle the military and government capabilities of the terrorist organization Hamas and return the hostages.” to their homes.”
Although Netanyahu had anticipated that “not even The Hague” would stop his military campaign, the non-call for a ceasefire allows Israel to continue without major changes, at least for the month of time that the ICJ has given it to report on how it complied. precautionary measures.
That omission by the court felt like a new disappointment to Palestinians in Gaza, who are pleading for an end to Israeli shelling and shooting. “Congratulations to the ICJ and the world. They failed the Palestinians again,” Hind Jodary, one of the few journalists still alive after almost four months, wrote from the strip.
Mustafa Ibrahim, a human rights activist who was forced to leave his home in Gaza City due to Israeli attacks, followed the announcement on the radio, along with other exiles in a shelter in Rafah, south of the enclave. “We, the displaced, the bereaved families and those who lost their homes, had the ambition that the court would call for an immediate ceasefire,” he told Reuters. “But, despite that, what happened was a victory.”
That phrase by Mustafa Ibrahim condenses in the same person the duality of feelings among the Palestinians after a ruling that, although it does not represent a stop to Israel’s war in Gaza, “means judging Israel for its crimes for the first time,” as he highlighted. the Palestinian politician, leader of the so-called third way, Mustafa Barghouti.