Bloody Sunday Trust Urges Dublin to back South Africa on Gaza Genocide

Derry's Bloody Sunday Trust has welcomed the decision by South Africa to initiate proceedings against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the UN’s tribunal for settling legal disputes submitted by states.

South Africa has invoked the Genocide Convention, to which South Africa and Israel are parties.

The Trust has also urged the Irish government to formally join South Africa as a party to the proceedings in this action to halt the Genocide in Gaza.

In an 84-page submission to the tribunal South Africa has requested provisional measures “to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention” and to ensure Israel’s compliance with its obligations as a signatory to that Convention. 

Tony Doherty, Chair of the Bloody Sunday Trust said: “This principled stance is in keeping with South Africa’s unyielding commitment to human rights, justice and accountability”. 

"Although South Africa is the first to act in response to the Gaza genocide, it is open to any state that has ratified the treaty to invoke the Genocide Convention against a member state suspected of genocide."

Whilst acknowledging that Israel has never adhered to UN Resolutions, humanitarian conventions or to international law, Tony Doherty pointed out that “neither did the apartheid regime of South Africa until the international community intervened in a meaningful way and imposed sanctions against it, divested from it and boycotted it."

He added: "Apartheid South Africa was in its day ‘the only democracy’ in Southern Africa.  It too was defending 'civilisation' against an existential enemy. 

"It  too relied on its massive military capability, its nuclear weapons capacity and the support of its allies in the United States, Britain and Europe. 

"Yet none of this could crush the resistance to an immoral political and economic system built on apartheid," said Tony Doherty. 

Noting that the Irish government had in 2004 referred Israel’s construction of a ‘separation wall’ in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to the ICJ for a ruling, Mr Doherty said there is therefore both a precedent and a compelling contemporary argument for a referral to the ICJ in the case of Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza. 

He said: "Israel is not, as is routinely claimed, engaged in self defence but is escalating the settler colonial violence it has directed for decades against the Palestinians. Prior to October 7 Israeli policy makers were actively advocating a second Nakba. 

"Expelling Palestinians from their homes and preventing their return is Israel’s foundational military and political strategy and its leaders are putting it into action once again.

"Israel’s military strategy on the ground is a deliberate effort to eject Gaza’s population south to Egypt, while rendering Gaza unlivable and return impossible.

"There is no other state in which ethnic cleansing is accepted as a mainstream government policy. 

 "In the face of the clearly stated genocidal intent and actions of Israeli political and military leaders an Irish government referral to the ICJ is both a moral imperative and an effective template that must now be applied to establish peace, dignity, equality and security for both Palestinians and Israelis”.