The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel must start making efforts to prevent acts of genocide and provide aid to Palestine but refrained from calling for a full cease-fire as the conflict continues.
South Africa’s legal inquiry has yielded modest fruit in the fight to stop Israel as it carries out large-scale attacks against the Palestinian people in Gaza. While the ICJ’s panel of 17 judges met 15 of the 17 conditions South Africa demanded Israel carry out to mitigate the conflict, the nation’s requests for an immediate cease-fire and for Israel to fully halt its military campaign in Gaza have yet to be met.
One judge from Uganda, Julia Sebuntinde, voted against all of the measures, arguing that “the dispute between the State of Israel and the people of Palestine is essentially and historically a political one.”
“It is not a legal dispute susceptible to judicial settlement by the Court,” Sebuntinde said in her dissenting opinion.
Israel’s military offensive and forces have killed 26,000 Palestinians, mostly women, and children since the war started last October. Nearly 65,000 people have been injured, and more than 1,000 are missing or presumed dead, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
According to the interim court order, Israel must “take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip” and “take immediate and effective measures to ensure the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions” Palestinians are currently facing.
It also said Israel must preserve any evidence connected to allegations of genocide.
However, Sebuntinde argued that South Africa didn’t prove that Israel’s actions were “committed with the necessary genocidal intent and that as a result, they are capable of falling within the…
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