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Jan. 15, 2024 - Jim Fetzer
50:56
South Africa's Case for Genocide Being Committed by Israel
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Thank you.
Madam President, Distinguished Members of the Court, It is a privilege to appear on behalf of the Republic of South Africa in this case of exceptional importance.
It's a case that underscores the very essence of our shared humanity as expressed in the preamble to the Genocide Convention.
It's my task to address the Court on the genocidal acts that have led to this urgent request for provisional measures under Article 41 of the Statute of the Court.
South Africa contends that Israel has transgressed Article 2 of the Convention by committing actions that fall within the definition of genocide.
The actions show a systematic pattern of conduct from which genocide can be inferred.
Allow me to place these acts in context.
Gaza is one of the two constituent territories of the occupied Palestinian territories, occupied by Israel since 1967.
It is a narrow strip of approximately 365 square kilometers, as depicted in the map now displayed.
Israel continues to exercise control over the space, territorial waters, land crossings, water, electricity, electromagnetic sphere, And civilian infrastructure in Gaza as well as over key governmental functions.
As the Honourable Minister has said, entry and exit by air and sea to Gaza is prohibited with Israel operating the only two crossing points.
Gaza, which is one of the most densely populated places in the world, is home to approximately 2.3 million Palestinians, almost half of them children.
For the past 96 days, Israel has subjected Gaza to what has been described as one of the heaviest conventional bombing campaigns in the history of modern warfare.
Palestinians in Gaza are being killed by Israeli weaponry and bombs from air, land and sea.
They are also at immediate risk of death by starvation, dehydration, and disease as a result of the ongoing siege by Israel, the destruction of Palestinian towns, the insufficient aid being allowed through to the Palestinian population, and the impossibility of distributing this limited aid while bombs fall.
This conduct renders essentials to life unobtainable.
At this provisional measures stage, as this court has made clear in the Gambia-Myanmar case, it is not necessary for the court to come to a final view on the question of whether Israel's conduct constitutes genocide.
It is necessary to establish only whether at least some of the acts alleged are capable of falling within the provisions of the Convention.
On analysing the specific and ongoing genocidal acts complained of, it is clear that at least some, if not all of these acts, fall within the Convention's provisions.
These acts are documented in detail in South Africa's application and confirmed by reliable, often UN, sources.
It's thus unnecessary and impossible for me to recount all of them.
I will highlight only some in order to illustrate the pattern of genocidal conduct.
The UN statistics that are relied upon are up to date as of 9 January 2024.
In South Africa's oral submissions, we will illustrate the facts that we rely on with limited use of audiovisual material.
Madam President, we do so with restraint, and only where necessary, and always with respect to the Palestinian people.
Against this background, I move now to demonstrate, in turn, how Israel's conduct violates Articles 2A, 2B, 2C and 2D of the Convention.
The first genocidal act committed by Israel is the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, in violation of Article 2A of the Genocide Convention.
As the UN Secretary General explained five weeks ago, the level of Israel's killing is so extensive that nowhere is safe in Gaza.
As I stand before you today, 23,210 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during the sustained attacks over the last three months.
At least 70% of whom are believed to be women and children.
Some 7,000 Palestinians are still missing, presumed dead, under the rubble.
Palestinians in Gaza are subjected to relentless bombing wherever they go.
Amen.
Thank you.
They are killed in their homes, in places where they seek shelter, in hospitals, in schools, in mosques, in churches, and as they try to find food and water for their families.
They have been killed if they failed to evacuate.
In the places to which they have fled, and even while they attempted to flee along Israeli declared safe routes.
The level of killing is so extensive that those whose bodies are found are buried in mass graves, often unidentified.
In the first three weeks alone, Following 7 October, Israel deployed 6,000 bombs per week.
At least 200 times, it has deployed 2,000 pound bombs in southern areas of Palestine designated as safe.
These bombs have also decimated the north, including refugee camps.
Two thousand pound bombs are some of the biggest and most destructive bombs available.
They are dropped by lethal fighter jets that are used to strike targets on the ground by one of the world's most resourced armies.
Israel has killed an unparalleled and unprecedented number of civilians.
With the full knowledge of how many civilian lives each bomb will take.
More than 1,800 families, Palestinian families in Gaza, have lost multiple family members and hundreds of multi-generational families have been wiped out with no remaining survivors.
Mothers, fathers, children, siblings, grandparents, aunts, cousins, often all killed together.
This killing is nothing short of destruction of Palestinian life.
It is inflicted deliberately.
No one is spared, not even newborn babies.
The scale of Palestinian child killings in Gaza is such that UN chiefs have described it as a graveyard for children.
The devastation we submit is intended to and has laid waste to Gaza beyond any acceptable legal, let alone humane, justification.
The second genocidal act identified in South Africa's application is Israel's infliction of serious bodily or mental harm to Palestinians in Gaza in violation of Article 2B of the Genocide Convention.
Israel's attacks have left close to 60,000 Palestinians wounded and maimed.
Again, the majority of them women and children.
This, in circumstances where the healthcare system has all but collapsed.
I'll return to this later in my speech.
Large numbers of Palestinian civilians, including children, are arrested, blindfolded, forced to undress, and loaded onto trucks taken to unknown locations.
The suffering of the Palestinian people, physical and mental, is undeniable.
Turning to the third genocidal act, under Article 2C, Israel has deliberately imposed conditions on Gaza that cannot sustain life and are calculated to bring about its physical destruction.
Israel achieves this in at least four ways.
First, by displacement.
Israel has forced the displacement of about 85% of Palestinians in Gaza.
There is nowhere safe for them to flee to.
Those who cannot leave or refuse to be displaced have either been killed or at extreme risk of being killed in their homes.
Many Palestinians have been displaced multiple times as families are forced to move repeatedly in search of safety.
Israel's first evacuation order on 13 October required the evacuation of over 1 million people, including children, the elderly, the wounded and infirm.
Entire hospitals were required to evacuate, even newborn babies in intensive care.
The order required them to evacuate the North to the South within 24 hours.
The order itself was genocidal.
It required immediate movement, taking only what could be carried.
While no humanitarian assistance was permitted and fuel, water and food and other necessities of life had deliberately been cut off, it was clearly calculated to bring about the destruction of the population.
For many Palestinians, the forced evacuation from their homes is inevitably permanent.
Israel has now damaged or destroyed an estimated 355,000 Palestinian homes, leaving at least half a million Palestinians with no home to return to.
The Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons explains that houses and infrastructure have been razed to the ground, frustrating any realistic prospects for displaced Gazans to return home, repeating a long history of mass forced displacement of Palestinians by Israel.
There is no indication at all that Israel accepts responsibility for rebuilding what it has destroyed.
Instead, the destruction is celebrated by the Israeli army.
Soldiers film themselves joyfully detonating entire apartment blocks and town squares.
erecting the Israeli flag over the wreckage, seeking to reestablish Israeli settlements on the rubble of Palestinian homes, and thus extinguishing the very basis of Palestinian life in Gaza.
Together with the forced displacement, Israel's conduct has been deliberately calculated to cause widespread hunger, dehydration and starvation.
Israel's campaign has pushed Gazans to the brink of famine.
An unprecedented 93% of the population in Gaza is facing crisis levels of hunger.
Of all the people in the world currently suffering catastrophic hunger, more than 80% are in Gaza.
The situation is such that the experts are now predicting that more Palestinians in Gaza may die from starvation and disease than airstrikes.
And yet Israel continues to impede the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians.
Not only refusing to allow sufficient aid in, but removing the ability to distribute it through constant bombardment and obstruction.
Just three days ago, on 8 January, a planned mission by UN agencies to deliver urgent medical supplies and vital fuel to a hospital and medical supply centre was denied by Israeli authorities.
This marked the fifth denial of a mission to the center since 26 December, leaving five hospitals in northern Gaza without access to life-saving medical supplies and equipment.
Aid trucks that are allowed in are seized upon by the hungry.
What is provided is simply not enough.
Madam President, Members of the Court, this is an image of an aid truck arriving in Gaza.
Israel has deliberately inflicted conditions in which Palestinians in Gaza are denied adequate shelter, clothes or sanitation.
For weeks, there have been acute shortages of clothes, bedding, blankets and critical non-food items.
Clean water is all but gone, leaving far below the amount required to safely drink, clean and cook.
Accordingly, the WHO has stated that Gaza is experiencing soaring rates of infectious disease outbreaks.
Cases of diarrhea in children under five years of age have increased 2,000% since hostilities began.
When combined and left untreated, malnutrition and disease create a deadly cycle.
and The fourth genocidal act under Article 2B is Israel's military assault on Gaza's healthcare system, which renders life unsustainable.
Even by 7 December, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health noted that the healthcare infrastructure in the Gaza Strip has been completely obliterated.
Those wounded by Israel in Gaza are being deprived of life-saving medical care.
Gaza's healthcare system, already crippled by years of blockade and prior attacks by Israel, is unable to cope with the sheer scale of the injuries.
Finally, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls has pointed to acts committed by Israel that would fall under the fourth category of genocidal acts in Article 2D of the Convention.
On 22 November she expressly warned the following.
The reproductive violence inflicted by Israel on Palestinian women, newborn babies, infants and children could be qualified as acts of genocide under Article 2 of the Genocide Convention, including imposing measures intended to prevent births within a group.
Israel is blocking the delivery of life-saving aid, including essential medical kits for delivering babies, in circumstances where an estimated 180 women are giving birth in Gaza each day.
Of these 180 women, The WHO warns that 15% are likely to experience pregnancy or birth-related complications and need additional medical care.
That care is simply not available.
In sum, Madam President, all of these acts, individually and collectively, form a calculated pattern of conduct by Israel, indicating form a calculated pattern of conduct by Israel, indicating a genocidal intent.
you This intent is evident from Israel's conduct in specially targeting Palestinians living in Gaza,
Using weaponry that causes large-scale homicidal destruction, as well as targeted sniping of civilians, designating safe zones for Palestinians to seek refuge, and then bombing these.
Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of basic needs.
Food, water, healthcare, fuel, sanitation and communications.
Destroying social infrastructure.
Homes, schools, mosques, churches, hospitals.
Killing, seriously injuring and leaving large numbers of children orphaned.
Genocides are never declared in advance.
But this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly a pattern of conduct and related intention that justifies a plausible claim of genocidal acts.
In the Gambia-Myanmar case, this court did not hesitate to impose provisional measures in relation to allegations that Myanmar was committing genocidal acts against the Rohingya within the Rakhine state. this court did not hesitate to impose provisional measures in Thanks.
The facts before the court today are sadly even more stark.
And like the Gambia Myanmar case, deserve and demand this court's intervention.
Every day there is mounting irreparable loss of life, property, dignity and humanity for the Palestinian people.
Our news feeds show graphic images of suffering that has become unbearable to watch.
Nothing will stop the suffering except an order from this court.
Without an indication of provisional measures, the atrocities will continue, with the Israeli Defense Force indicating that it intends pursuing this course of action for at least a year.
In the words of the UN Undersecretary General on 5 January 2024, I quote, You think getting aid into Gaza is easy?
Think again.
Three layers of inspections before trucks can even enter.
Confusion and long queues.
A growing list of rejected items.
A crossing point meant for pedestrians, not trucks.
Another crossing point where trucks have been blocked by desperate, hungry communities.
A destroyed commercial sector.
Constant bombardments.
Poor communications.
Damaged roads.
Convoys shot at.
Delays at checkpoints.
A traumatised and exhausted population crammed into a smaller and smaller sliver of land.
Shelters which have long exceeded their full capacity.
Aid workers themselves displaced, killed.
This is an impossible situation for the people of Gaza and for those trying to help them.
The fighting must stop.
Madam President, Members of the Court, That concludes my section on the genocidal conduct of Israel.
I thank you for your patient attention and I ask that you call Advocate Nuka Tobe to the podium to address the court on genocidal intent.
I thank Ms.
Hasim and I now invite Mr. Tembeke Nuka Tobe to address the court.
You have the floor, sir.
Madam President and distinguished members of the Court, it is a privilege to appear before the Court on behalf of South Africa.
I will address Israel's genocidal intent.
At this stage, the Court is not required to determine that the only inference to be drawn from the available evidence is genocidal, to order provisional measures, as that is to decide the merits.
Rather, the assessment of the existence of an intent to destroy could be made by the court only at the stage of the examination of the merits.
That some of the alleged acts may also amount to atrocities other than genocide does not exclude the finding of plausible acts of genocide.
Madam President, South Africa is not alone in drawing attention to Israel's genocidal rhetoric against Palestinians in Gaza.
Fifteen United Nations Special Rapporteurs and 21 members of the United Nations Working Groups have warned that what is happening in Gaza reflects a genocide in the making.
And an overt intent to destroy the Palestinian people and our occupation.
Israel has a genocidal intent against the Palestinians in Gaza.
That is evident from the way in which Israel's military attack is being conducted, which has been described by Ms.
Hassim Essi, It is systematic in its character and form.
The mass displacement of the population of Gaza, headed into areas where they continue to be killed, and the deliberate creation of conditions that, quote, lead to a slow death, unquote.
There is also the clear pattern of conduct.
The targeting of family homes and civilian infrastructure, laying waste to vast areas of Gaza, and the bombing, shelling, and sniping of men, women, and children where they stand, the destruction of the health infrastructure, and lack of access to humanitarian assistance.
So much so, that as we stand today, one percent of the Palestinian population in Gaza has been systematically decimated.
And one in four Gazans have been injured since 7 October.
These two elements alone are capable of evidencing Israel's genocidal intent in relation to the whole or part of the Palestinian population in Gaza.
However, third, 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.
And these statements are then repeated by soldiers on the ground in Gaza.
As they engage in the destruction of Palestinians and the physical infrastructure of Gaza.
We show this third element next.
Israel's special genocidal intent is rooted in the belief that in fact the enemy is not just the military wing of Hamas.
Or indeed, Hamas generally, but is 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.
There are more than 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel is the occupying power in control of Gaza.
It controls entry, exit, and the internal movements of inside Gaza.
And qua Prime Minister, Mr Netanyahu exercises overall command over the Israeli Defence Force, and in turn, the Palestinians in Gaza.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, in his address to the Israeli forces on 28 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 Saul for the retaliatory destruction of an entire group of people known as the Amalekites.
Put to death, men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.
The genocidal invocation to Amalek was anything but idle.
It was reputed by Mr. Netanyahu in a letter to the Israeli Armed Forces on 3 November 2023.
Madam President, let the Prime Minister's words speak for themselves.
Thank you.
And we do remember and we are fighting our brave troops and combatants who are now in Gaza or around Gaza.
The Deputy Speaker of the Kennesaw, Israel's Parliament, has called for the erasure of the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth.
Thank you.
The Defense Force agrees.
On 9 October, the Defense Minister, Yoav Galant, gave a situation update to the Army, where he said that as Israel was 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.
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.
Reach all places without any restraints.
The theme of destruction of human animals was reiterated by an Israeli Army coordinator of government activities in the territories on 9 October 2023, who, in an address to Hamas and the residents of Gaza, stated that Hamas has become ISIS and that the citizens of Gaza are celebrating instead of being horrified.
He concluded that human animals are dealt with accordingly.
Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza.
No electricity, no water, just damage.
You wanted hell, you will get hell.
The language of systematic dehumanization is evident here.
Human animals, both Hamas and civilians, are condemned.
Within the Israeli cabinet, this is also a widely held view.
The Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Israel Katz, called for the denial of water and fuel, as this is what will happen to a people of children killers and slaughterers.
This admits of no ambiguity.
It means to create conditions of death of the Palestinian people in Gaza.
To die a slow death because of starvation and dehydration, or to die quickly because of a bomb attack or snipers, but to die nevertheless.
In fact, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said that Israel must find ways for Gazans that are more painful than death.
It is no answer to say that neither are in command of the army.
They are ministers in the Israeli government.
They vote in the Knesset and are in a position to shape state policy.
The intent to destroy Gaza has been nurtured at the highest levels of state, as President Isaac Herzog has joined the ranks of those signing bombs destined for Gaza.
Having previously noted that the entire population in Gaza is responsible, and that this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, is absolutely not true, we will fight until we break their backbone.
Later attempts by the President and others to neutralize this speech have not altered the sting of his words, which was to tar all Palestinians as responsible for the actions of Hamas.
Nor, as I will show below, has it affected how state policy is understood within government.
The Minister of National Security repeated the President's statements that Hamas and civilians are responsible in equal measure.
On 10 November 2023, in a televised interview, he stated that when we say that Hamas should be destroyed, it also means those who celebrate, those who support, and those who hand out candy.
They are all terrorists and they should also be destroyed.
These are orders to destroy and to maim what cannot be destroyed.
These statements are not open to neutral interpretations or after-the-fact rationalizations and reinterpretations by Israel.
The statements were made by persons in command of the state.
They communicated state policy.
It is simple.
If the statements were not intended, they would not have been made.
The genocidal intent behind these statements is not ambiguous to the Israeli soldiers on the ground.
Indeed, it is directing their actions and objectives.
On 7 December 2023, Israeli soldiers proved that they understood the Prime Minister's message to remember what the Amalek has done to you as genocide.
They were recorded by journalists dancing and singing.
We know our motto.
They are no uninvolved.
That they obey one commandment to wipe off the seed 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 reputing the inciting words of their Prime Minister.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Israeli soldiers in Gaza were filmed dancing, chanting, and singing in November.
May their village burn.
May Gaza be erased.
There is now a trend among the soldiers to film themselves committing atrocities against civilians in Gaza in a form of snuff video.
One recorded himself detonating over 50 houses in Sujaiya.
Other soldiers were recorded singing, we will destroy all of Khan units and this house.
We will blow it up for you and for everything you do for us.
These are the soldiers putting into effect their command. - With God's help, we'll get to you.
828 squadron.
Saying hello to Sajjai.
Amazing.
30 houses.
There is peace.
Good.
30 people.
749.
Here we start the victory.
The commanders of the army are also of the same mind.
The Israeli army commander Yair Ben David has stated that the army had done in Beit Hanon and did there as Shimon and Levit did in Nablus and that the entire Gaza should resemble Beit Hanon.
Israeli soldier Yeshay Shalev published a video against the backdrop of the ruins of what was the site of Al-Azhar University with the caption, Once upon a time, there was a university in Gaza, and in practice, a school for murderers and human animals.
Soldiers obviously believe that this language and their actions are acceptable because the destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza is articulated state policy.
Senior political and military officials encouraged without censure the 95-year-old Israeli Army reservist Ezra Yachin, a veteran of the Deir Yassin massacre against the Palestinians in 1948, to speak to the soldiers ahead of the ground invasion to speak to the soldiers ahead of the ground invasion in Gaza.
.
In his talk, He echoed the same sentiment while being driven around in an officially Israeli army vehicle, dressed in Israeli army fatigue.
I quote, Be triumphant and finish them off.
And don't leave anyone behind.
Erase the memory of them.
Erase them, their families, mothers and children.
These animals can no longer live.
If you have an Arab neighbor, don't wait.
Go to his home and shoot him.
We want to invade, not like before.
We want to enter and destroy what's in front of us, and destroy houses, then destroy the one after it.
With all of our forces, complete destruction, enter and destroy.
As you can see, we will witness things we've never dreamed of.
Let them drop bombs on them and erase them.
As recently as 7 January 2024, a video of a soldier was posted online where he boasts that the army had destroyed the entire village of Hibat Azar.
For two weeks, he said, they had worked hard to bomb the village and executed their mandate.
Any suggestion that senior politicians did not mean what they said, much less that the meaning was not understood by soldiers in Gaza, would be without any merit.
The scale of destruction in Gaza, the mass targeting of family homes and civilians, the war being a war on children, all make clear that genocidal intent is both understood and is being put into practice.
The articulated intent is the destruction of Palestinian life in all its manifestations.
The genocidal rhetoric is also commonplace within the Israeli Knesset.
Members of the Knesset have repeatedly called for Gaza to be wiped out, flattened, erased and crushed on all its inhabitants.
They have deplored anyone feeling sorry for the uninvolved Gazans.
Asserting repeatedly that there are no uninvolved, that there are no innocents in Gaza, that the killers of the women and children should not be separated from the citizens of Gaza, and that the children of Gaza have brought this upon themselves, and that there should be one sentence for everyone there, death.
Finally, the lawmakers have called for mercilessly bombing from the air, with some advocating for the use of nuclear doomsday weapons and a NAGPRA that will overshadow the NAGPRA of 48.
The Prime Minister's genocidal speech has gained ground among some elements of civil society.
A famous singer has repeated Mr. Netanyahu's Amalek reference, stating that Gaza must be wiped out and be destroyed with every Amalek seed.
We simply must destroy all of Gaza and exterminate everyone who is there.
Another has called to erase Gaza, not leave a single person there.
Journalists and commentators have announced that the woman is an enemy, the baby is an enemy, the pregnant woman is an enemy.
That it is necessary to turn the Strip into a slaughterhouse, to demolish every house our soldiers come across, exterminate everyone.
The intentional failure of the Government of Israel to condemn, prevent and punish such genocidal incitement constitutes in itself a grave violation of the Genocide Convention.
We should recall, Madam President, that in Article 1 of the Convention, Israel confirmed that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law.
And it undertook to prevent and to punish it as such.
This failure to prevent, condemn, and punish such speech by the government has served to normalize genocidal rhetoric and extreme danger for Palestinians within Israeli society.
As MK Moshe Sadah from the Likud party has said, the government's own attendees share his views that Palestinians in Gaza must be destroyed.
I quote, you go anywhere And they tell you to destroy them.
In the kibbutz, they tell you to destroy them.
My friends at the State Attorney's Office who fought with me on political issues in debate said to me, it is clear that we need to destroy all Gazans.
Destroy all Gazans.
Israel is aware of its destruction of Palestinian life and infrastructure.
Despite this knowledge, it has maintained and indeed intensified its military activity in Gaza.
As to full awareness, in the week after 7 October, NGOs and the United Nations warned of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The UN stated that actors must allow humanitarian teams and goods to immediately and safely reach the hundreds of thousands of people in need.
So right from the beginning, Israel knew that it was depriving water, food, electricity and essentials for survival.
It said so.
Everything is closed.
It is known that it was depriving Palestinians of health care and treatment for injury in the middle of an unprecedented bombardment of food and water and of other essentials for survival.
This prompted the World Health Organization to say, we are on our knees asking for sustained, scaled-up, protected humanitarian operations, appealing to all those in a situation to make a decision, or influence decision-makers appealing to all those in a situation to make a decision, or influence decision-makers to give us the humanitarian space to
Despite this knowledge, Israel continues to target infrastructure essential for survival.
Water and sanitation infrastructure, solar panels, bakeries, mills, crops.
It bombs hospitals, decimating the healthcare system.
It targets aid workers and the infrastructure of the United Nations.
It is because of the policy of Israel that Gaza has become a place of death and despair.
In conclusion, Madam President, many propagators of grave atrocities have protested that they were misunderstood.
That they did not mean what they said, and that their own words were taken out of context.
What state would admit to a genocidal intent?
Yet, the distinctive feature of this case has not been the silence as such, but the reiteration and repetition of genocidal speech throughout every sphere of state in Israel.
We remind the court of the identity and authority of the genocidal inciters.
The Prime Minister, the President, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of National Security, the Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, members of the Knesset, senior army officials and foot soldiers.
Genocidal utterances are therefore not out in the fringes.
They are embodied in state policy.
The intent to destroy is plainly understood by soldiers on the ground.
It is also fully understood by some within the Israeli society with the government facing criticism for allowing in any aid to Gaza on the basis that it is recanting on its promise to starve Palestinians.
Any suggestion that Israeli officials did not mean what they said or were not fully understood by soldiers and civilians alike to mean what they said should be rejected by this court.
The evidence of genocidal intent is not only chilling, it is also overwhelming and incontrovertible.
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