“The list goes on. It has to stop. The view of the international community is clear. Enough is enough.”
Ireland will intervene in the case initiated by South Africa against Israel under the Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence, Micheal Martin, has said.
The decision followed an analysis of the legal and policy issues arising in the case, and consultation with partners, including South Africa.
“Following the Provisional Measures ordered by the Court on 26 January, the Government confirmed its intention to urgently consider filing a declaration of intervention in this case,” with the ICJ, Martin said in a statement on Wednesday.
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This was “based on a legal analysis of the Genocide Convention, the Court’s provisional measures order and consultation with other Contracting Parties.”
“That analysis and consultation has now concluded. Ireland will be intervening,” the Minister said.
Violation of International Law
Describing such intervention as a third party in a case before the ICJ as “a complex matter and relatively rare,” Martin said, “it is for the Court to decide whether genocide is being committed.”
“What we are seeing in Gaza now represents the blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a mass scale,” he added.
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He pointed to the “purposeful withholding” of humanitarian assistance to civilians, the “targeting of civilians and of civilian infrastructure” as well as the “collective punishment of an entire population.”
“The list goes on. It has to stop. The view of the international community is clear. Enough is enough,” Martin said, emphasizing that the UN Security Council “has demanded an immediate ceasefire.”
‘Flood Gaza with Aid’
He stressed that the “situation could not be more stark; half the population of Gaza face imminent famine and 100% of the population face acute food insecurity.”
“As the UN Secretary General said as he inspected long lines of blocked relief trucks waiting to enter Gaza during his visit to Rafah at the weekend; ‘it is time to truly flood Gaza with life-saving aid. The choice is clear: surge or starvation’. I echo his words today.”
In late December, South Africa filed a case against Israel at the ICJ, accusing it of committing genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip. The World Court issued a number of provisional measures on January 26 including that Israel take all measures to ensure its troops do not commit genocidal acts against Palestinians, as well as the delivery of aid to the besieged population.
Martin said Ireland’s intention is likely to take a number of months to materialize.
“Ireland will liaise closely with a number of partners who have also confirmed their intention to intervene, as we prepare our intervention,” he said.
Over 32,400 Killed
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 32,490 Palestinians have been killed, and 74,889 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’
(The Palestine Chronicle)
