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South Africa will argue Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza at the International Court of Justice on January 11. Israel will mount its defense against the claims on Jan. 12.
In an interview with The Black Wall Street Times Thursday afternoon, White House National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby rejected South Africa’s accusations. He also detailed how the U.S. is seeking to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East.
“We don’t find the South African claim to have any merit, and frankly, we believe it’s counterproductive,” Kirby told The Black Wall Street Times.
“The Israeli Defense Forces are not waking up every morning and heading into the fight thinking that they want to wipe the Palestinian people off the map. They want to wipe the threat of Hamas off the map,” Kirby said.
Yet, even U.S. officials were forced to condemn statements from Israeli ministers this week. The statements from top level cabinet ministers called for the forced displacement of all Palestinians from Gaza and for Jewish settlers to take over their land.
Over 20,000 Palestinians dead, 132 hostages in Gaza
Hamas, the militant group which controls the Gaza strip that 2.2 million Palestinians call home, launched a terror attack against Israeli border towns on October 7, killing up to 1,200 people and taking over 200 hostage. 121 hostages have been released, but 132 remain trapped in Gaza, Hareetz reports.
The months-long military response from Israeli Defense Forces have resulted in the deaths of over 22,000 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Israel’s bombing campaign has internally displaced over 85% of the population and razed over 70% of all structures in Gaza to rubble.
While the vast majority of world nations have called for a permanent ceasefire, the United States government has refused to do so. Instead, Biden has sidestepped Congress to continue supply Israel with emergency military assistance even as the American president has urged Israel to reduce the civilian death toll.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue a months-long battle in Gaza until Hamas is completely eradicated, an objective experts believe is unlikely without mass killings of civilians.
“You have a mandate to fight,” Netanyahu said in December, the New York Times reported. “You do not have a mandate to stop in the middle.”
Meanwhile, Hamas militants draw motivation to continue fighting in opposition to decades of Israeli occupation, a violation of international law.
Israel faces International Court of Justice
South Africa, no stranger to decades of brutal, white supremacist apartheid, is taking Israel to court on January 11 at the Hague, Netherlands.
In an application, South Africa claimed Israel’s actions in Gaza are “genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.”
Despite accusations of collective punishment, ethnic cleansing, and now genocide, Israeli leaders stand behind their military conduct.
“No, South Africa, it is not we who have come to perpetrate genocide, it is Hamas,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said in response, the BBC reported.
Speaking with The Black Wall St. Times Thursday, White House National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby echoed that sentiment.
“They’re not trying to erase the Palestinian people from existence. On the other hand, Hamas wants exactly that for the Israeli people,” Kirby said.
Citing the militant group’s 2017 manifesto, Kirby accused Hamas of “genocidal intent.”
Reading through the full text of the manifesto, however, could lead people to draw a different conclusion.
Hamas 2017 manifesto. What does it say?
Hamas indeed calls for a completely Palestinian state and “rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea,” as found in section 20, an English translation provided by Middle East Eye shows.
However, Hamas also calls for living in peace with other groups in the region. “Palestine has always been and will always be a model of coexistence, tolerance and civilizational innovation,” a sentence in section 8 reads.
The militant group, which many in Palestinian territories view as a resistance group, explicitly says its conflict is with “the Zionist project” and not all Jewish people.
“Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet, it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity,” section 16 reads.
Families of the victims of the October 7 attack and hostages remaining in Gaza are unlikely to believe those sentiments found in the manifesto.
However it also calls for upholding international law, even as efforts to provide an independent state for Palestinians remain out of reach.
“The Zionist movement, which was able with the help of Western powers to occupy Palestine, is the most dangerous form of settlement occupation which has already disappeared from much of the world and must disappear from Palestine,” the manifesto’s section 17 reads.
International Court to hear from South Africa and Israel
Ultimately, it remains unclear whether Israel will change course in its assault on Hamas in Gaza. It’s also unclear whether South Africa’s accusations will lead to criminal prosecution.
Meanwhile, the fallout from the Middle East tension has hit Americans at home. Hate crimes against Jewish Americans and Palestinian Americans have increased with deadly results.
Back in the Middle East, fears of the Israel-Hamas conflict becoming a wider regional war remain high.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels are attacking Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea. Hezbollah militants trade rockets with Israel from Lebanon. And U.S. personnel continue to face threats from militant groups based in Iraq and Syria.
The U.S.-led coalition Operation Prosperity Guardian seeks to create safe passageways for maritime vessels in the Red Sea. However, attempts to de-escalate tensions haven’t materialized.
“Whoever considers going into war against us, will simply regret it,” a Hezbollah leader said Tuesday after the targeted killing of a Hamas leader in Beirut.
The Black Wall St. Times asked Kirby if Americans are safe as the U.S. continues to supply Israel with weapons.
“We have been, since the beginning of this conflict, concerned about spillover effects, particularly here at home. The acts of hatred and violence against any community for how they worship or where they’re from is unacceptable to President Biden,” Kirby said.
“We’ve been working closely with state and local authorities, since the 7th of October, to make sure we are all knitted up, and we have shared intelligence and shared information incase there are any visible viable threats that we can act to prevent them and to disrupt them,” he said.
South Africa will mount its argument against Israel at the International Court of Justice January 11.
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