South Africa initiated proceedings on Friday against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding alleged violations of its responsibilities under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
According to the application, "acts and omissions by Israel...are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent...to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group." The African country added that Israel violated its obligations under the Genocide Convention.
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide states that "killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group" as acts of genocide.
