South African Case Divorced from Facts

God’s righteous is emphasised in the Bible, in one instance by David when he concludes Psalm 11 with this explanation of why God will rain judgement upon the wicked:

‘For the Lord is righteous, he loves justice; the upright will see his face.’
(Psalm 11:7)

David’s statement that the Lord loves justice is echoed in other scriptures, including Deuteronomy 1:16 in which Moses reminded the people of Israel:

‘And I charged your judges at that time,
“Hear the disputes between your people and judge fairly,
whether the case is between two Israelites or
between an Israelite and a foreigner residing among you.’

So, one wonders what God thinks of the current case brought to the International Court of Justice by the South African government.

In court, that case was described by Gilad Noam as “completely divorced from facts and circumstances.” He added that it “makes a mockery of the heinous charge of genocide,” reminding the court that Israel is defending itself against Hamas, an organisation that “has vowed to continue the atrocities of October 7th many times over.”

Gilad Noam at the ICJ (Photo: UN WEB TV)

And last week’s reduction of the Gazan casualty figures by the United Nations has made the inappropriate nature of that charge of genocide even clearer than it was before.

Another member of Israel’s team, Tamar Kaplan Tourgeman, also pointed out the falsity of South Africa’s accusation that Israel is cutting off humanitarian aid from Gaza. She observed that aid and fuel are continuing to enter through Israel, including 365 truckloads yesterday.

She further noted that Israel has opened three new land crossings, expanded capacity of existing crossings, and spent $52 million on expanding infrastructure and road capacity to all crossings.

Indeed, even while the court proceedings were in progress, the first aid shipment delivered via a temporary pier built by the Americans arrived in the Gaza Strip.

That shipment included nearly 100 tonnes of UK aid comprising 8,400 shelter coverage kits – temporary shelters made up of plastic sheeting – representing the first part of a £2 million package of UK aid to be delivered from Cyprus.

The accusations of genocide and cutting off aid do not hold up in the face of the facts.