Vusimuzi Madonsela, South African Ambassador to the Netherlands, and then Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, prepare to attend a hearing on January 11 and 12 2024 at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). (Photo by Michel Porro/Getty Images)
Israel’s political leadership is allegedly inciting troops to war to “erase” Gaza using religious Biblical rhetoric referring to ancient enemies and an apparent call by God to “wipe” them out, while using derogatory terms that refer to Palestinian people as murderous “human animals”.
This was the argument advocate Thembeka Ngcukaitobi presented as the second member of South Africa’s legal team to raise a raft of allegations that Israel is committing genocide against the people of Gaza, before a packed International Court of Justice at Peace Palace in The Hague on Thursday.
Ngcukaitobi showed what he described as “snuff video” evidence of Israeli soldiers allegedly celebrating the bombing and burning of villages in Gaza and highlighted remarks by its government officials and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has in relation to the current crisis in Gaza allegedly used Biblical references to Israel’s ancient enemies, the Amalekites, and God’s call in the Bible to destroy them.
South Africa filed a genocide case application against Israel on 29 December instituting proceedings against Israel for alleged violations of its obligations under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the Genocide Convention) in relation to Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.
The hearings are focused on South Africa’s request for the court to indicate provisional measures to be taken against Israel to “protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention” and “to ensure Israel’s compliance with its obligations under the Genocide Convention not to engage in genocide, and to prevent and to punish genocide”. Both countries are signatories to the convention.
If South Africa’s application is successful, the preliminary measures would include ordering Israel to suspend its military operation in Gaza, pending the finalisation of the case.
But Netanyahu has repeatedly denied allegations of genocide, saying in his latest statements published on his official Twitter account on Wednesday that the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) was warning civilians to flee the war zone.
“IDF urges Palestinian civilians to leave war zones by disseminating leaflets, making phone calls, providing safe passage corridors, while Hamas prevents Palestinians from leaving at gunpoint and often, with gunfire,” he said.
He said Israel had “no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population. Israel is fighting Hamas terrorists, not the Palestinian population, and we are doing so in full compliance with international law.
“Our goal is to rid Gaza of Hamas terrorists and free our hostages. Once this is achieved Gaza can be demilitarised and deradicalised, thereby creating a possibility for a better future for Israel and Palestinians alike,” Netanyahu said.
But South Africa’s legal team argued in court that Israel’s alleged invocation of genocide in Gaza could never be justified as a response to defend its own citizens, even after Hamas killed about 1 200 people and took 240 hostage on 7 October 2023.
Ngcukaitobi told the court that the people of Gaza had been “systemically decimated” since 7 October and that state officials had allegedly declared their “genocidal intent” that had filtered down to soldiers on the ground.
“There is an extraordinary feature in this case that Israel’s political leaders, military commanders and persons holding official positions have systematically and in explicit terms, declared their genocidal intent. These statements are then repeated by soldiers on the ground in Gaza as they engage in the destruction of Palestinians, and the physical infrastructure,” he said.
He alleged that Israel believed that “the enemy” is not just Hamas but “embedded in the fabric of Palestinian life in Gaza”.
“On 7 October, in a televised address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Gaza and, I quote, ‘Israel has started clearing out the communities that have been infiltrated by terrorists’ and he warned of an unprecedented price to be paid by the enemy,” Ngcukaitobi said.
He said Israel is the “occupying power” in Gaza, controlling its two entry and exit points as well as internal movements and Netanyahu had used Biblical rhetoric when addressing the Israeli Defence Force.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu, in his address to the Israeli forces in October 2023, preparing for the invasion of Gaza, urged the soldiers to ‘remember what Amalek has done to you’. This refers to the biblical command by God to [the historical King] Saul for the retaliatory destruction of an entire group of people known as the Amalekites [to] put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys,” he said.
He said Netanyahu repeated this invocation to Amalek in a letter to the Israeli armed forces on 3 November 2023, while Israel’s knesset (parliament) had called for “the erasure of the Gaza strip from the face of the Earth”.
“On 9 October the Defence Force Minister Yoav Gallant gave a situation update to the army when he said that Israel is imposing a complete siege on Gaza. There would be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything would be closed because Israel is fighting human animals,” he said.
“Speaking to troops on the Gaza border, he instructed them that he has released all the restraints and that Gaza won’t return to what it was before. ‘We will eliminate everything, we will reach all places, eliminate everything, all places within the streets.’ The theme of destruction of human animals was reiterated by an Israeli army coordinator of government activities in the territories on 9 October 2023.”
Ngcukaitobi said these alleged calls for “genocide” had led to soldiers taking “snuff videos” of bombings and celebrating the destruction in the streets of Gaza.
“Israeli soldiers proved that they understood the prime minister’s message to remember ‘what Amalek has done to you’ as genocide. They were recorded by journalists dancing and singing, ‘we know our motto, there are no uninvolved’ [showing] that they obey one commandment to wipe off the seat of Amalek. The prime minister’s invocation of Amalek is being used by soldiers to justify the killing of civilians, including children. These are the soldiers repeating the inciting words of their prime minister,” he said.
“The soldiers in Gaza were filmed dancing, chanting and singing in November, ‘may the village burn, may Gaza be erased’. There is now a trend among the soldiers to film themselves committing atrocities against civilians in Gaza. In the form of a snuff video, one recorded himself detonating over 50 houses.”
He said other soldiers had been recorded singing that they will destroy homes “for everything you do for us”.
Ngcukaitobi showed the court videos of the soldiers allegedly celebrating the destruction and bombing of communities.
“These are the soldiers putting into effect their command,” he said.
Advocate Adila Hassim SC, earlier outlined the case alleging that Israel had committed four categories of crimes that amount to genocide under Article Two of the convention. These included killing members of a particular group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to the members of the group; deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction in whole or in part and imposing measures intended to prevent births.
She said 23 210 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces during the sustained attacks since October, at least 70% of whom are believed to be women and children, while an estimated 7 000 Palestinians are still missing, presumed dead under the rubble.