The International Court of Justice (ICJ) held a two-day session on January 11-12, 2024, in The Hague, as South Africa filed a petition against Israel in ICJ under Article IX of the Genocide Convention, contending that Israel “intends to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group, that being the part of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip”.[1] South Africa invoked the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in late December 2023, marking the second recent case of countries not directly embroiled in a dispute presenting genocide allegations before the ICJ. In 2019, The Gambia had brought a similar case against Myanmar for alleged genocide against the Rohingya community.[2] South Africa sought “provisional measures” from the ICJ to halt the alleged genocide, while Israel denied any genocidal intent in Gaza.
