South Africa accuses Israel of genocide against Palestinians at top international court

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• Amna Nawaz:

  The International Court of Justice in The Hague heard arguments from South Africa today accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

  It's a rare case and could drag on for years.

  But, as Nick Schifrin reports, South Africa is requesting a preliminary ruling, which could have far-ranging implications for Israel and the United States.

• Nick Schifrin:

  In the depths of Gaza's despair, South Africa accuses Israel of what's been called the crime of crimes.

• Adila Hassim, South African Lawyer:

  The actions show a systematic pattern of conduct from which genocide can be inferred.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Today, South Africa asked the International Court of Justice to compel Israel to stop the war and what it called decades of discrimination.

  Vusimuzi Madonsela, South African Ambassador to the Netherlands: The application places Israel's genocidal acts and omissions within the broader context of Israel's 75-year apartheid.

• Woman:

  The Draft Convention on Genocide is being presented to the General Assembly today.

• Nick Schifrin:

  It was 75 years ago last month that the U.N. adopted the Genocide Convention, the first human rights treaty. It was born out of the Nazis' Final Solution, a campaign of systemic murder that helped lead to the birth of the state of Israel.

  The convention defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group," and cites as examples killing, injuring, inflicting conditions calculated to bring about physical destruction, preventing births, or transferring children.

• Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, South African Lawyer:

  Israel has a genocidal intent against the Palestinians in Gaza. That is evident from the way in which Israel's military attack is being conducted, the mass displacement of the population of Gaza herded into areas where they continue to be killed, and the deliberate creation of conditions that could lead to a slow death.

• Nick Schifrin:

  South Africa also accuses Israel of declaring its own genocidal intent.

• Isaac Herzog, Israeli President:

  This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it's absolutely not true. And we will fight until we break their backbone.

• Yoav Gallant, Israeli Defense Minister (through translator):

  We are ordering a complete siege on Gaza, no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.

• Isaac Herzog:

  There is nothing more atrocious and preposterous than this claim.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Israel dismisses the lawsuit as a blood libel. Israel argues it's Hamas that started the current round of violence on October the 7th, and it's Hamas charter that vows to — quote — "obliterate Israel" on behalf of Islam.

• Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister (through translator):

  The state of Israel is accused of genocide at a time when it is fighting genocide. A terrorist organization carried out the worst crime against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, and now someone comes to defend it in the name of the Holocaust. What brazen gall. The world is upside down.

• Nick Schifrin:

  This week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken backed Israel's case.

  Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State: The charge of genocide is meritless.

• Oona Hathaway, Yale Law School:

  Every state that's party to the Genocide Convention has the duty and the obligation and the right to raise concerns when they think that that convention is being violated.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Oona Hathaway is professor of international law at Yale Law School. She says the court only has to rule South Africa has shown reasonable probability of genocide to impose orders on Israel that could affect the U.S.

• Oona Hathaway:

  The U.S., as a member of the Genocide Convention itself, its own legal obligations will kick in, and it is prohibited from aiding and assisting in genocide. But it's also actually positively obligated to act to prevent genocide.

  And so this is going to make continuing military support, certainly for Israel, maybe even foreign assistance of various kinds to Israel, quite difficult.

• Nelson Mandela, Former South African President:

  We identify with the PLO, because, just like ourselves, they are fighting for the right of self-determination.

  (Cheering and applause)

• Nick Schifrin:

  South Africa's support for Palestinians goes back decades. Former President Nelson Mandela was close to Palestine Liberation Organization founder Yasser Arafat. Before that, Israel supported and even negotiated providing nuclear weapons to South Africa's apartheid government.

  In 1999 in the West Bank, Mandela advocated for a Palestinian state by any means necessary.

• Nelson Mandela:

  If the only alternative is violence, we will use violence.