Ireland has officially joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
In a press release dated 7 January 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) stated:
On Monday 6 January 2025, Ireland, invoking Article 63 of the Statute of the Court, filed in the Registry of the Court a declaration of intervention in the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel).1
Parties that are signatories to the 1948 Genocide Convention are permitted to intervene in ICJ cases. In this instance, Ireland has indicated that it would offer its interpretation of Articles I, II and III of the Convention.
Back in December 2023, three months after the start of Israel’s ruthless ground and air attacks on Gaza, South Africa filed its case against Israel, accusing it of carrying out genocide against the enclave’s Palestinian population.
As of 8 January 2025, Israel’s military onslaught has killed at least 45,936 Palestinians since 7 October 2023. Thousands more are feared buried under rubble. Of all Palestinians killed, 70% have been women and children. As well, the Palestinian death toll includes 166 journalists and media workers, 120 academics and over 224 humanitarian aid workers, a figure that includes 179 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
The Australian aid worker, Zomi Frankcom, along with six international and Palestinian colleagues, were killed by an Israeli airstrike which deliberately targeted their convoy south of Deir al-Balah on 1 April 2024. Medical officials said the group had been helping to deliver food and other supplies to northern Gaza that had arrived hours earlier by ship.
Israel’s relentless onslaught has also caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the enclave. A recent Human Rights Watch report dated 14 November 2024, stated:
[Israel’s} offensive, which includes a massive bombing campaign and ground attacks across Israeli-occupied Gaza, continues to this day. There have been ongoing attacks on military targets, but there have also been significant amounts of unlawful airstrikes and destruction of civilian infrastructure and housing, a tight blockade of Gaza that has led to a humanitarian catastrophe and amounts to collective punishment of the civilian population, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war.2
In January 2024, the ICJ found that it was plausible that Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip constituted genocide and ordered Israel to refrain from carrying out actions that could lead to such an outcome.
Israel, however, continued its brutality in Gaza, killing dozens of Palestinians on a daily basis, obstructing the entry of humanitarian relief and destroying homes, hospitals, schools, roads and other crucial infrastructure.
Many other world leaders, NGOs, and UN agencies have also proceeded to accuse the ultra-nationalist Netanyahu government of carrying out a genocide in Gaza.3
On 21 November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued warrants of arrest for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed between 8 October 2023 and 20 May 2024, the day the applications for warrants of arrest were filed.
Ireland has for many years been a strong proponent of the Palestinian cause, consistently advocating for an end to Israel’s illegal occupation in the Palestinian territories and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
Since the start of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, the Irish government emerged as one of Europe’s leading critics of Israeli atrocities in the Palestinian enclave, where ground and air assaults have been perpetrated now for over 15 months killing around 46,000 Palestinians.
In May last year, Ireland officially recognised Palestine as a state. Within Europe, Spain, Malta, Norway, and Slovenia have also officially recognised Palestine as a state.
Ireland’s plan to join South Africa in its case against Israel had been long anticipated with Dublin indicating its intention to intervene in March 2024. In December, Dublin approved a plan to file its intervention in the ICJ, with Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin, saying it would be filed in The Hague within a matter of weeks.
By formally joining South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, the Irish Deputy Prime Minister said it will be asking the ICJ to broaden its interpretation of genocide.
Martin has previously expressed concern that “a very narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide leads to a culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is minimised”.
Speaking last month when the Government secured approval to intervene in the case, Martin said: “Ireland’s view of the Convention is broader and prioritises the protection of civilian life — as a committed supporter of the Convention, the Government will promote that interpretation in its intervention in this case.”
Martin also said the intent and impact of military actions of Israel in Gaza has resulted in “a collective punishment” of the Palestinian people, leaving tens of thousands dead and most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population displaced.4
Ireland’s recognition of Palestine as a state and its commendable decision to join South Africa’s case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, contrasts markedly with the Australian government’s lack of meaningful action against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
This failure has fueled widespread discontent and disillusionment, has contributed to weakening social cohesion in local communities and, not least, has diminished Australia’s standing internationally.
Notes
1. International Court of Justice, Press Release No. 2025/1, 7 Jan 2025.
2. Human Rights Watch, “Hopeless, Starving and Besieged”: Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, 14 Nov 2024.
3. Francesca Albanese, Genocide as colonial erasure: Report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, 1 Oct 2024.
4. Michelle McGlynn, ‘Ireland officially joins South Africa’s genocide case against Israel’, Irish Examiner, 8 Jan 2025.