Lindsay Dentlinger17 May 2024 | 9:25

Israel labels SA's fourth approach to ICJ court as egregious

Israel’s deputy attorney general Gilad Noam addressed the court on Friday morning after South Africa’s legal team, on Thursday, appealed to the world’s highest court to stop a military incursion in Rafah, southern Gaza.

Israel labels SA's fourth approach to ICJ court as egregious

Members of the delegation of Israel on 16 May 2024 at the ICJ hearing in the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip. Picture: UN Photo/ICJ/Wendy van Bree

CAPE TOWN - Israel has labelled South Africa’s fourth approach to the International Court of Justice as egregious, and an obscene exploitation of the United Nation’s Genocide Convention. 
 
Israel’s deputy attorney general Gilad Noam addressed the court on Friday morning.

This is after South Africa’s legal team on Thursday appealed to the world’s highest court to stop a military incursion in Rafah, southern Gaza. 

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But Noam told the court South Africa has been inverting the facts and making a mockery of international law by levelling allegations of genocide against it - during the seven-month-long conflict with the Palestinian militant group, Hamas. 
 
“By exploiting the Genocide convention, South Africa is suggesting a convoluted reading of international law under which any armed conflict could be brought before the court.

“It seeks, once again, to obtain provisional measures that would bind only Israel and not its adversary. The absurd result is that Israel would be denied its inherent right to defend itself. Hamas for its part would be free to continue committing its horrific crimes.”