RAMALLAH, October, 29, 2024 (WAFA) – South Africa has filed its Memorial to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) today in its case on the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

In accordance with the Rules of Court, the Memorial may not be made public. The filing of this memorial takes place at a time when Israel is intensifying the killing of civilians in Gaza and now seems intent to follow a similar path of destruction in Lebanon. The action taken by South Africa since December 2023, culminating in the filing of this Memorial has generated overwhelming national and international interest. 

The Memorial – the name for the document recording the main case of South Africa against Israel – contains evidence which shows how the government of Israel has violated the genocide convention by promoting the destruction of Palestinians living in Gaza, physically killing them with an assortment of destructive weapons, depriving them access to humanitarian assistance, causing conditions of life which are aimed at their physical destruction and ignoring and defying several provisional measures of the International Court of Justice, and using starvation as a weapon and to further Israel’s aims to depopulate Gaza through mass death and forced displacement of Palestinians. 

The evidence will show that undergirding Israel’s genocidal acts is the special intent to commit genocide, a failure by Israel to prevent incitement to genocide, to prevent genocide itself and its failure to punish those inciting and committing acts of genocide. 

The evidence is detailed in over 750 pages of text, supported by exhibits and annexes of over 4,000 pages. South Africa’s Memorial is a reminder to the global community to remember the people of Palestine, to stand in solidarity with them and to stop the catastrophe. The devastation and suffering has been possible only because despite the ICJ and numerous UN bodies’ actions and interventions, Israel has failed to comply with its international obligations.

Israel has been granted unprecedented impunity to breach international law and norms for as long as the UN Charter has been in existence. Israel’s continued shredding of international law has imperilled the institutions of global governance that were established to hold all states accountable . 

As President Cyril Ramaphosa stated in his address to the UN General Assembly this year, “The South African story bears witness to the enduring role of the United Nations in global matters. In supporting our struggle, the UN affirmed the principles of the UN Charter – fundamental human rights, the dignity and worth of every person, and the equal rights of nations, large and small”. President Ramaphosa emphasized that South Africa’s action through the ICJ was an attempt to ensure that the same global solidarity that helped end Apartheid in South Africa should be mobilized to end the Apartheid that Palestinians are experiencing, including an end to the genocide of Palestinians.

South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice is a comprehensive presentation of the overwhelming evidence of genocide in Gaza. 

Y.S