A United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday reprimanded its colleagues for requiring Israel to work on the Sabbath in their response to a case brought before the ICJ by South Africa under the Genocide Convention.
The dissenting opinion of the Vice-President of the International Court of Justice Julia Sebutinder came in a nine-page document issued in response to the court’s order for Israel to end its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The ruling came at the request of South Africa, which accuses Israel of genocide in its ongoing war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Israel has vehemently denied these allegations.
Among the disagreements that Sebutinde, a Ugandan, had with her colleagues were objections to the court’s handling of the South African request and to the “random oral hearings”.
“In my view, the Court should have agreed to Israel’s request to postpone the oral hearings until the following week to give Israel sufficient time to fully respond to South Africa’s request and to engage counsel,” Sebutinde wrote, noting that Israel’s preferred counsel was not available on the dates scheduled by the Court.
“It is also regrettable that Israel had to respond to a question from a member of the court regarding the Jewish Sabbath,” Sebutinde said. “The court’s decision in this regard concerns procedural equality between the parties and the good administration of justice by the court.”
Sebutinde also argued that the court’s original ruling “does not entirely prohibit the Israeli military from operating in Rafah.” She also urged the court to maintain its judicial integrity and that it should “not react to every change in the conflict and not control hostilities in the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, down to the smallest detail.”
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Sebutinde clarified that the ruling serves to “partially constrain Israel’s offensive in Rafah to the extent that it affects rights under the Genocide Convention.” She warned that the ruling “is prone to ambiguity and could be misinterpreted or misconstrued as ordering an indefinite, unilateral ceasefire, which represents an untenable overreach by the court.”
The judges’ ruling on Friday was not enough to order a full ceasefire across the Palestinian territory, and Israel is unlikely to comply with the court’s ruling. Friday’s decision came just days after Norway, Ireland and Spain said they would recognize the Palestinian state and the chief prosecutor of a separate international court requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Hamas leaders.
Since October 7, more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombings and ground offensives in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Israel began its war in Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attack, in which militants entered southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and abducting about 250. According to Israel, about 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, along with the bodies of about 30 others.
Source of the original article: Israel must work on the Jewish Sabbath after a UN judge calls on his colleagues to issue a devastating dissent