What the landmark ICJ genocide case against Israel means for the world

The International Court of Justice has heard its share of high-profile cases. But few have been as closely watched, or as politically explosive, as South Africa’s suit alleging that Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinians in the war in Gaza.

A final ruling on South Africa’s claims — which Israel has furiously denied as “profoundly distorted” — is likely to take years. But in the coming days, the court’s 17 judges are expected to make their first decision in the case: whether to grant South Africa’s request for a range of emergency measures meant to rein in Israel’s assault on Gaza.

Even before the judges issue their decision, however, the fact that a western-backed democracy has been accused in court of the highest international crime has made waves around the world. For Israel and its allies, the case is baseless and an outrage. But for Palestinians and their supporters, particularly in the Global South, the case is a test of the credibility of an international system they have long regarded as stacked against them.

“Few conflicts in the world have such global reverberations as this one . . . All over the world people have a position on this,” said Dahlia Scheindlin, a Tel Aviv-based pollster and political analyst. “So I can imagine any decision by the court is going to inflame both sides in one way or the other.”

In Israel, still reeling from the October 7 attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 people and ignited the war, South Africa’s case has been met with incomprehension and anger, especially as the 1948 Genocide Convention under which it was brought was drawn up in response to the Holocaust, during which the Nazis and their collaborators killed 6mn Jews.

“A terrorist organisation carried out the worst crime against the Jewish people…