Why Israel Is Taking the Genocide Case Seriously
South Africa dropped a bombshell on the international community in December, claiming in the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ highest judicial body, that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. No doubt Pretoria, a longtime supporter of Palestine and in a deteriorating diplomatic relationship with Israel, had political reasons to bring what most Israelis view as an outrageous claim. But to dismiss the case as political theater would be a mistake.
Israel did not send a team of government attorneys to put up a defense in The Hague, or hire one of the leading members of the ICJ bar, merely because of politics. Rather, Israel understands the stakes: The ICJ’s ruling will influence how states, international organizations, and the public view not only the conflict in Gaza, but also Israel itself, and more broadly, the obligation of states to prevent genocide. The case could even encourage legal action against specific Israelis in courts worldwide.
The “rules-based international order” that the United States claims to defend is one where international courts not only matter, but dispense a kind of real-time justice, enabling the dispassionate language of law to clarify state obligations in a way that the political
