Highest international court announces that Israel is on trial for genocide

The ICV hails the International Court of Justice's near unanimous decision.

This is truly a momentous decision and comes after South Africa argued that Israel is breaching its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The court dismissed all of Israel's cynical attempts to have the case thrown out.

Israel and its supporters will spin this as a victory because the ICJ's provisional measures do not explicitly call for a ceasefire. But this would be a gross misrepresentation. For Israel to comply with the provisional measures it must stop killing civilians and it must ensure that Gaza's civilians have unimpeded access to humanitarian aid. One cannot fathom how Israel can meet this without ceasing its indiscriminate assault.

Under the genocide convention, all signatories have an obligation to act to stop genocide. Australia, the US, and all of Israel's Western European backers are now on notice.

The ICV calls upon the Federal government to: demand that Israel immediately comply with all the provisional measures; cease all forms of military cooperation and intelligence sharing with Israel; implement targeted sanctions against Israeli government and military officials; make it illegal for Australians to join Israel's assault in Gaza; reverse its suspension of funding for UNRWA; and join the South African case against Israel.

The ICV also calls upon the Victorian government to immediately terminate its agreement with the Israeli Defence Ministry, and cancel its agreement with Israel's largest weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems signed in 2021.