(The Hague, The Netherlands - January 12, 2024)
Between January 11-12, 2024, Israel heard and rebutted the first round of oral arguments in the International Court of Justice (ICJ)—the judicial organ of the United Nations—where the South African Government accused Israel of genocide. As it awaits the ICJ’s ruling on a request for a preliminary injunction demanding that Israel cease military activity in Gaza, StandWithUs applauds the case made by Israel’s legal counsel and thanks the US, UK, Germany and Canada for having condemned the South African Government’s baseless accusations.
Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs, said, “As a daughter of Holocaust survivors, it is deeply disturbing to witness this cynical abuse of legal structures that are meant to prevent genocide. Just last month, senior Hamas officials attended a large “solidarity” conference in South Africa. If the South African government actually cared about holding genocidal terrorists accountable, it would have arrested them rather than welcoming them into the country. Instead of demonizing Israel at the ICJ, the international community must focus on pressuring Hamas to release every single hostage, surrender, and end this horrific war.”
The ongoing war has been devastating for both Israeli and Palestinian civilians, and their suffering cannot be minimized. At the same time, the South African government’s accusations are false. Israel has taken numerous unprecedented measures to avoid harming Palestinian civilians, while defending its own civilians against the genocidal violence of Hamas. On October 7th, 2023 the terrorist group massacred 1,200 people in Israel, torturing, raping, burning alive, and mutilating many of their victims. In its military response against Hamas, Israel has sought to save Palestinian civilian lives by coordinating evacuation measures, humanitarian corridors, and the delivery of humanitarian aid. In contrast, Hamas has promised to repeat the genocidal atrocities of October 7th over and over until Israel is destroyed, while putting Palestinian civilians directly in the line of fire throughout the current war.
South Africa’s case shamefully serves the interests of Hamas and other terrorist groups. Indeed, Hamas has praised South Africa’s effort to weaponize the ICJ against Israel. They support it because it would undermine the right of Israel, and all nations, to defend their citizens against terrorist groups that carry out genocidal violence and then hide behind civilians.
StandWithUs demands the ICJ to dismiss the charges against Israel as soon as possible. To view Israel’s oral arguments, click here.
About StandWithUs
StandWithUs (SWU) is an international, nonprofit and non-partisan Israel education organization that works to inspire and educate people of all ages about Israel, as well as challenge misinformation and fight against antisemitism.
Through university fellowships, high school internships, middle school curricula, conferences, materials, social media, educational films and missions to Israel, StandWithUs supports people around the world who want to educate their schools and communities about Israel.
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the organization has chapters and programs throughout the U.S., in Israel, the UK, Canada, South Africa, Brazil and the Netherlands.
For the last eleven years, SWU has consistently received the highest possible ratings from Charity Navigator and Guidestar, two charity watchdog groups that assess hundreds of thousands of charities in the United States.
