Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine), 17.5.2024
Today, the Zionist lawyers presented their arguments in defense of the genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza. The first line of defense was that South Africa lies by saying that Rafah was the last refuge for the Gazans and that it was not true that Israel was not providing enough aid to the Gazans. At the same time, South Africa’s evidence proved that the Gazans are starving. Thousands of Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza were cut off from water and food after a week-long Israeli incursion that has led to heavy battles where the Zionist army has suffered severe losses.
The second line of defense for the attacks on Rafah is that Hamas forces are hiding in the city as if the existence of Hamas fighters justifies genocide. The Zionist lawyer argued that South Africa warns the court that if Rafah falls, then all of Gaza will fall. That argument has become a reality – The Zionists said if we topple the terror regime of Hamas in Rafah, only then can all of Gaza be freed.
The third line of defense is the attack on the integrity of South Africa in the eyes of the imperialists. “South Africa is exploiting the International Court of Justice to help Hamas gain the upper military edge over the IDF in the Gaza war, Israel’s Deputy Attorney General Gilad Noam told the court at The Hauge on Friday.”[i]
From a legal point of view, this argument is entirely irrelevant because the legal question is not what is Hamas but whether Israel commits genocide! The Zionist argument only gives more credibility to South Africa in the eyes of the pro-Palestinian mass movement that includes Jews.
“Jews opposing Israeli attacks on Palestine praise South Africa’s ‘brave stance’ against genocide. Jewish community denouncing Israel’s crimes in Gaza rallied in the Hague amid public hearings in the genocide case against Israel at top UN court in the Netherlands.
Rabbi Dovid Feldman, member of the “Neturei Karta International,” an orthodox religious Jewish organization worldwide, denounced “months of genocide, mass murder of masses of innocent men, women, and children” in Gaza.
This is unacceptable. This is unacceptable for the world,” the Rabbi stressed and added that the Jewish people were “deeply embarrassed when all of this is being done supposedly in our name.
Their religion was misused to justify the crimes, Feldman added, and expressed his appreciation of “South Africa for its brave stance, of standing up and holding Israel accountable for all that is going on.”[ii]
The arguments of the Zionist lawyers bring to mind the Newspeak in the novel 1984 by George Orwell, where slavery is freedom, war is peace. We see how much freedom the Palestinians in the West Bank has, where Israel has killed more than 500 Palestinians since October 7th. On 11 December 2012, the office of then-Prime Minister Salam Fayyad stated that since 1967, 800,000 Palestinians, or roughly 20% of the total population and 40% of the male population, had been imprisoned by Israel at one point in time. About 100,000 had been held in administrative detention. By 2024, at least one million Palestinians have been imprisoned by the Zionist Monster.
We do not trust the ICJ or the ICC to bring justice to the Palestinians. These are institutions of the imperialists, particularly Western imperialism. We trust only the revolutionary struggle of the international working class, the oppressed nations, and the students who joined the struggle of the advanced layers of the working class. This struggle in the Middle East can lead to the Arab revolution that all the imperialists and their servants in the region are terrified of. However, if these courts will issue a verdict against Israel, we will not oppose it, of course.
In the meantime, the US criminal imperialists continue to support the genocide of the Palestinians. Biden denies that Israel is committing genocide and sends more weapons for the butchery, and slanders the students protest as anti-Semitic.
Down with the Zionist monster and all the imperialists!
For Palestine red and free from the river to the sea!
Endnotes
[i] https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-801557
[ii] https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/jews-opposing-israeli-attacks-on-palestine-praise-south-africas-brave-stance-against-genocide/3106233