Gaza: Suing Israel for genocide is atrocious, preposterous – Herzog

Admin I Tuesday, Jan.09, 2024

 

TEL AVIV- President of Israel, Isaac Herzog has said it is atrocious and preposterous to brand Israel as committing genocide in Gaza.

Israel has killed over 22,000 people, most of them children and women in the war on Gaza in revenge for the October 7  Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel in which about 1,200 Israelis were killed.

Besides, Israel has been accused of blocking access to humanitarian aid, food and water, destroying non military targets, including hospitals, forcing residents into a state of perpetual starvation. Many medical doctors have been killed, many now forced to flee, journalists and officials of the United Nations have also been killed in this war of attrition, now collective punishment on Palestine.

Based on the strength of the destruction and indiscriminate killings  in Gaza, South Africa filed a suit against Israel for committing genocide against Palestine at the International Court of Justice a the Hague.

But speaking to Blinken during his fourth visit to Israel, Herzog described the South African claim as atrocious and preposterous. Proceedings will commence on Thursday. But Herzog said Israel will defend it self against the claims.

“There is nothing more atrocious and preposterous than this claim. Actually our enemies, the Hamas, in their charter, call for the destruction and annihilation of the state of Israel – the only nation-state of the Jewish people.

“ The convention against genocide was enacted by the international community following the worst atrocities of humankind – the Shoah, the Holocaust, which was aimed specifically against the Jews, the Jewish people, in order to eliminate the Jewish race, the Jewish people. In Hamas’s charter it’s almost identical in many, many ways”, he told Blinken.

He thanked Blinken for America’s support for Israel.

“We are very grateful to you for your support and for your steadfast commitment to Israel’s safety and to making sure that Israel wins this war, because it’s a war that affects international values and the values of the free world”, he said.

He described South Africa’s action as hypocritical but that Israel will defend itself.
We will be there at the International Court of Justice and will present proudly our case of using self-defense, under our most inherent right under international humanitarian law, where we are doing our utmost in under extremely complicated circumstances on the ground, to make sure that there will be no unintended consequences and no civilian casualties.

“We are alerting, we are calling, we are showing, we are sending leaflets – we are using all the means that international law enables us in order to move out people so that we can unravel this huge city of terror underneath in people’s homes, living rooms, and bedrooms, mosques, and shops, and schools”, he said.