No power on Earth will stop Israel from protecting its citizens and going after Hamas in Gaza,’ says Israeli gov spokesman
Free Beacon | May 24, 2024
THE HAGUE (Reuters) — Israel has vowed to defy a ruling from the top United Nations court that called on the Jewish state to halt its military assault on the Hamas-controlled southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Reading out the ruling by the International Court of Justice or World Court, the body’s president, Nawaf Salam, said the situation in the Palestinian enclave had deteriorated since the court last ordered Israel to take steps to improve it.
“The state of Israel shall … immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” Salam said.
Israel has repeatedly dismissed the case’s accusations of genocide as baseless, arguing in court that its operations in Gaza are self-defense and targeted at Hamas militants who attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
An Israeli government spokesman said on the eve of Friday’s decision that “no power on Earth will stop Israel from protecting its citizens and going after Hamas in Gaza.”
The ICJ, the highest U.N. body for hearing disputes between states, has no enforcement powers.
The court also ordered Israel to open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to allow in humanitarian aid and said the country must provide access to the enclave for investigators and report back on its progress within one month.
The order was adopted by the panel of 15 judges from around the world in a 13-2 vote, opposed only by judges from Uganda and from Israel itself.
It was handed down a week after it was requested by South Africa as part of a case accusing Israel of genocide.
Outside, a small group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators waved flags and played a rap on a boom box calling for a Palestinian state.
Israel launched its assault on the southern city of Rafah this month, forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee a city that had become a refuge to around half of the population’s 2.3 million people.
Rafah, on Gaza’s southern edge, has also been the main route in for aid, and international organisations say the Israeli operation has cut off the enclave and raised the risk of famine.
EMERGENCY MEASURES
South Africa’s lawyers asked the ICJ last week to impose emergency measures, saying Israel’s attacks on Rafah must be stopped to ensure the survival of the Palestinian people.
A decision against Israel could heap more diplomatic pressure on the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court—a separate court also based in The Hague—announced on Monday he had filed an application for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as leaders of Hamas.
Prosecutor Karim Khan accused Netanyahu and Gallant of crimes including extermination, using hunger as a weapon, and deliberately attacking civilians. Israel strongly denied those charges and called on allies to repudiate the court.
South Africa’s wider case at the ICJ accuses Israel of orchestrating a state-led genocide against the Palestinian people. The ICJ has not ruled on the substance of that accusation—this could take years—but has rejected Israel’s demand to throw the case out.
In previous rulings, the court ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide against the Palestinians and allow aid to flow into Gaza, while stopping short of ordering a halt to Israeli military operations.
Israel launched its air and ground war on Gaza after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israeli communities, killing 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. More than 35,000 Palestinians have since been killed in the offensive, Gaza’s health ministry says.
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg and Anthony Deutsch; additional reporting by Mayaan Lubell in Jerusalem; writing by Peter Graff; editing by Andrew Heavens and Mark Heinrich.)
https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/2599/HEC04-01.pdf?sequence=1#:~:text=From%201944%20to%201948%20at,or%20other%20parts%20of%20Europe.
Raphael Amen
May Ha Shem protect Israel and give it success in this war.
May Ha Shem bless and protect the men and women of the IDF.
May Ha Shem frustrate all the plans of Israel’s enemies.
May Ha Shem, the One who never slumbers nor sleeps, watch over Israel.
May Ha Shem bless Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers with unity, strength, and wisdom.
May Ha Shem raise up leaders in other countries who will stand by Israel in this time of trouble.
May Ha Shem cause the fear of the Jews to fall upon the enemies of Israel.
May Ha Shem set the the hostages free and return them safely to Israel.
May Ha Shem comfort those who mourn the loss of loved ones.
May Ha Shem execute judgment upon those who have killed or maimed Israelis.
May Ha Shem bring shalom to Yerushalaim.
May Ha Shem bless the land of Israel and its people.
Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto Le’Olam Va’ed
Thanks, Ted, for retrieving this for me.
Ted, please rescue my most recent post, about the world’s “humanitarian” lies and hypocricy, and it failure to help people who are genuinely in need of humanitarian aid in many countries.
If the USA and other countries were genuinely interested in proving humanitarian aid to people in distress, they could start with Haiti, which is near to the American coast. There are genuine reports from physicians on the scene that many people, possibly over a milliom, are either starving or dying of infectious diseases, or both. They are also being terrorized by armed gangs that have killed many innocent people.
There are photos and videos that prove this beyond reasonable doubt. Yet the
“humanitarian” United States is doing absolutely nothing to help these people. Instead. it pours million of dollars in puported humanitarian aid to Gaza, where nearly everyone is well fed and adequately housed and no humanitarian crisis exists.
Other very real humanitarian crises exist in Somalia, Eritrea, Ethioia, The Republic of the Congo, and Mozambique. For that matter, in hypocritical South Africa as well, In these African countries, and probably others, millions of people are dying of starvation and/or communicable diseases. And the “humanitarian” countries of the world are doing absolutely nothing to help them.
Felix ‘Having thought on it the answer may be that the intellectual life of Zionism is coming to an end. That is the only obvious conclusion’
Compared to what? What is the great intellectual giant that you adhere too.?
South Africa, now there is a champion of human rights. Who cares what the UN does.?
Obama must be destroyed
https://www.algemeiner.com/2024/05/24/american-icj-judge-who-voted-against-israel-was-nominated-biden-top-state-department-role/ The link tot the article in algemeiner about this American appointed anti-Israel judge on the ICC.
One of the judges who voted to order a halt to Israel’s Rafah operation was nominated for the post of legal advisor to the state department in 1921, but the Senate after examining her and learning of her anti-Israel opinions refusedto confirm her, More recently the Biden-appointed U.S. panel of Judges who select the American representative on the ICC recommended this lady. When she was
then appointed to the court, both Biden and Blinken sent their warm contratulations. Then she cast her vote in favor of a “court order” to Israel to immediately halt it s operation in Gaza on the grounds that it is causing a “grave humanitarian crisis.”
We watch with interest as this unfolds. I patiently await the day when the Hand of the Almighty reaches down and gives the ICC and South Afrika a little smack. Well on second thought maybe, he will smack the HELL out of them both. With all the problems in the world the ICC could focus some positive energy on, and all the problems in the whole continent of Afrika, in which they should focus on, these idiots want to take a stand against Israel to keep HAMAS alive. <blockquote “The state of Israel shall … immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group (HAMAS) in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” Salam said.
Dreuveni
Having thought on it the answer may be that the intellectual life of Zionism is coming to an end. That is the only obvious conclusion.
Dreuveni
I agree with you but I am unable to understand why the 3 editors have stopped following the war in Ukraine
And Peloni no longer disputes with the many on Israpundit who are supporters of Zelensky
No longer covering Ukraine
Allowing lie to be piled on lie by the Fascists
Did the three editors decide
It’s about time that the rosh hayehudi ( the famous Jewish mind ) woke up and started using lawfare to its advantage. For example, how about a case against South Afrika and the ICC to stop this nonsense of unfounded claims against the state of Israel and orders, no less, the stop protecting its own citizens from attempted genocide against it.
The court should instead concentrate on the wars in Ukraine (24/7 on the news), and the less reported but much more genocidal wars in, for example, Afrika ( where did I hear that word recently? ), and almost everywhere else in the world.
I haven’t heard a single word about “humanitarian aid” to any other country. What’s the big deal with the Gaza Strip which is, according to eye-witness reports is overflowing with humanitarian aid to the point that the Gazans are complaining that MREs are passed their best-before date? The reasons/excuses do not pass a mild smell test.
Finally, our good friend Egypt has turned out to be only interested in profiting from the exorbitant fees they have been demanding from the Gazans for years. Any mediation between the sides can only be seen in this light.