Mick Hartley

Tory MP and former attorney-general Michael Ellis in the Times today – South Africa’s case against Israel is a dangerous stunt:

Hamas’s invasion of Israel on October 7 was a massacre of medieval barbarity that has forever altered the Israeli psyche. Any nation would have to respond in self-defence to a pogrom-style slaughter of 1,200 of its people. South Africa, sadly in deep decline and heading geopolitically in the wrong direction, has now distorted Israel’s campaign against Hamas to allege a claim of “genocide” against the Palestinian people.

The case they have brought to The Hague is a dangerous political stunt, devoid of legal merit. Article II of the 1948 Genocide Convention, created of course after the organised extermination of millions of Jews, defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. Whatever one thinks of Israel’s response, its war is against Hamas, not the people of Gaza.

South Africa’s legal submission omits any reference to how Hamas strategically positions itself within the civilian population of Gaza, in effect using them as human shields. Or how the IDF has enacted tactical pauses in fighting to enable the temporary evacuation of civilians to places of relative safety.

The loss of Palestinian civilian life is tragic. It would be heartless not to be dismayed by the rubble that now covers Gaza. But as a matter of law all war is not genocide. The evidence is that Israel tries to minimise civilian casualties, and this in itself disproves the very central charge of “intent”.

If accusations of genocide are to be levelled in this conflict, Hamas is the only culprit. Its charter declares the destruction of Israel as its ultimate objective. Its actions on October 7 included rape, murder and mutilation that left bodies unrecognisable. Senior Hamas officials, such as Ghazi Hamad, vowed to “repeat the October 7 attack time and again until Israel is annihilated”.

Why has South Africa, once one of Israel’s most significant partners, become one of its most malicious critics? It is part of South Africa’s ideological shift to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. We saw the dangerous consequences of this when it remained neutral after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. When the international community rushed to phone Israeli leaders to lend support after October 7, South Africa’s foreign minister called the heads of Hamas.

No one can deny this is an ugly war. But all war is ugly. It is possible to make a viable case for whether Israel has done enough under international humanitarian law to minimise civilian suffering. However, unverified legal claims do not enhance the credibility or effectiveness of international law, especially when such accusations are a perversion of the truth.