Charging Israel with genocide makes a mockery of the ICJ
crime. Not because it is the bloodiest: Stalin and Mao killed many more people in gulags and famines than the nearly 6m Jews murdered by the Nazis. But the Holocaust was seen as so monstrous that the UN adopted the Genocide Convention, promising never again to allow an attempt to wipe out a group of people, or part of one, simply because of their nationality, race, religion or ethnicity.
That promise has been repeatedly broken—in Bosnia, Darfur and Rwanda, to name a few. Each new case brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ought to give the world a chance to make good on its word and help strengthen the taboo against genocide by clarifying the obligations of countries to prevent and punish it. Alas, South Africa’s claim that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians, heard by the ICJ this week, cheapens the term.
It risks weakening the taboo and body of law aimed at preventing it. It obscures the real worry that Israel’s destructive campaign is breaking the laws of war; and the fact that permanent occupation is wrong. With its case, South Africa is making a mockery of the court.
Genocide requires that Israel is killing people in Gaza simply for being Palestinian. In fact it is targeting Hamas fighters in response to a deadly attack on its territory. Some far-right Israeli politicians have used hateful language, but they are not articulating government policy.
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