Israel has responded to South Africa’s request for additional and modified Provisional Measures in the South Africa v Israel genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
In its response Israel labelled South Africa’s new request ‘bellicose, offensive in tone and disingenuous’.
In reference to the case filed in December, Israel said:
The Application contained a request for the Court to indicate nine provisional measures, the most extreme of which constituted a legally and morally untenable attempt to prevent Israel exercising its inherent right to defend itself.
NEWS: on 15 March 2024, Israel submitted its observations on South Africa’s urgent request of 6 March 2024 for the indication of additional provisional measures and the modification of the #ICJ ’s prior decisions in the case #SouthAfrica v. #Israel https://t.co/teaDIh2Tfq pic.twitter.com/BtBRxvqw7E
— CIJ_ICJ (@CIJ_ICJ) March 18, 2024
In November, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese told the National Press Club in Canberra:
The right of self-defence can be invoked when a state is threatened by another state, which is not the case. Israel has not claimed it is being threatened by another state. It’s being threatened by an armed group, qualify it the way you want, but it’s an armed group within occupied territory. And frankly even saying the war between Gaza and Israel is wrong, because Gaza is not a stand alone entity, it’s part of the occupied territory.
But so, in particular, Israel can not claim the right of self-defence against a threat that emanates from the territory it occupies, from a territory that is kept under belligerent occupation.
Today in a panel discussion on Al Jazeera, Francesca Albanese said she will soon be providing a report that concludes, Israel is committing genocide.