ISRAEL IN THE DOCK WHILE GAZA BURNS
Posted on 13th January 2024
There is no question that the invasion of Israel by Hamas on October 7th constitutes a crime on every level imaginable. The barbarity displayed was utterly despicable. Israel sought to defend itself but at what price. War is terrible whether it is in Ukraine or Gaza. However, what we are seeing in Gaza displayed on our television screens are starving children. How can that be right? How can the international community stand by and let that happen. So dire also is the medical situation that amputations are being carried out without anaesthetics. Think about that for a minute. How would you like to have a leg removed in those circumstances. Now South Africa is taking a case at the United Nations International Court of Justice on the basis that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in the war in Gaza. In an interesting twist Israel has despatched Aharon Barak, a holocaust survivor to represent the state. 87 years old, he is one of Israel’s most distinguished jurists. He served 28 years on their Supreme Court, 11 of those years as President. He was smuggled out of the Kovno ghetto in Lithuania in 1944 as an 8 year old boy. South Africa in its 84 page application to the court urges the Judges to order Israel to “ immediately suspend its military operations” in Gaza stating that it “ has engaged in, is engaging in, and risks further engaging in, genocidal acts”. There is no question that this will be a highly emotionally charged case. Eylon Levy an Israeli Government spokesman called the case “ a blood libel” which sought “ to cover up the crimes of the Hamas rapist regime”. In contrast Professor Yuval Shany, Chair of International Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has pointed out that some of the recent statements made by Israeli politicians amount to incitement to genocide, which is a crime in itself. It is difficult at this stage to anticipate where this is all going. The case itself may take years to come to a conclusion. However, surely the immediate objective is to try and bring an end to the massacre of the innocents in Gaza. Israel is rapidly losing the moral high ground. People are forgetting the atrocities that Hamas inflicted and now are seeing the terrified eyes of the children emerging from the rubble, having lost both their parents. The stark truth is that Israel has become Hamas’s recruiting sergeant.
