the the, you're watching the to the news coming to live from berlin as well faces charges of genocide at the international court of justice hearings begin to behave or south africa is accusing israel of breaching b. u n's, genocide, convention allegations that is ralph calls baseless. also coming up on our show riots and pop when you're getting as police a strike over pay the prime minister calls for com and declares a state of emergency to deal with widespread looting lawlessness and our sense the

clair richardson a warm welcome to the show. the international court of justice and the hague has begun hearing accusations of genocide brought by south africa against israel. the case itself could take years upon south africa is asking the court to order israel to immediately halt if military operations and gaza south africa has long supported, the palestinians leaking their struggle to its own history of fighting apartheid. israel for his part has strongly denied the claims of calling. the accusations baseless israel says it is doing all that can to avoid civilian casualties in gaza as it responds to how much this terrorist attack last october. but south africa alleges, not only is this on true, but the israel's campaign is targeting palestinians with the aim of wiping them out as a people. and it's more than 80 page filing to the world. cool in the hey to south

africa argues accent, emissions by israel, a genocidal in character as they are committed with the requisite specific intent to destroy palestinians in gaza as part of the broad palestinian national, racial and ethnic group. it goes on to say this constitutes a breached by israel, of its obligations under the genocide convention. a document drawn up in 1948 and the aftermath of the whole cost, which both israel in south africa have signed israel. those states, it has a right to self defense after the bloodiest attack in its history. its officials have renounced with and go to south africa's filing, pointing out. but how mosque continues to call for the destruction of the jewish state? israel says it will flank back in the court. the state of israel will appear before the international court of justice at the hague. to dispel south africa is absurd blood libel. how tragic,

but the rainbow nation that prides itself on fighting racism will be fighting pro bono for anti jewish races. palestinians in garza and the rest of the world would be looking closely at the colts response to south africa's request. a provisional routing could come within weeks, but any final judgement is expected to take years. of course, but it was the actual turn at the hague, told me more about today's proceedings. so right now, the hearing side going on south africa was making his case. and it is very, very important to remember that this is right now, the provision of metro. so these hearings are about the question whether the ice j, which is behind me, is going to order provision of mattress towards each right or not. it has the effort has been asking for these kind of provision and measures. they have to ask for flu range and they go from asking each royalties to immediately stop all

military operation in the gaza strip to all to allowing how many carrying the systems also, for example, um collecting evidence. um, so this is what is going on here, right? now, tomorrow it will be on use radio to give an answer to this. in addition to that immediate request of being made it today, can you tell us about the charges more generally? what exactly is south africa alleging here, and how serious are these charges? so these are of course very, very serious charges south africa saying that each trend has been doing x and emissions, which are the genocide in character and that they are in breach of the genocide convention. the question whether this is the case or not is not what is going to be decided here today or in the next couple of weeks. it is um for a later stage of the proceedings that can take several years to tell us more about that time. you think it will take us several years before we see a final one from icy j. and yes,

that is the case. it is also the case because i have been talking to little experts before and to to prove the special intent which is needed for a genocide charge. it is a special intent that the person acting or the country acting in this case, once to destroy the whole group. in this case, it would be dependents to use in a whole or group of these people. that is a very, very difficult thing to prove. and this is also via these kind of proceedings difficult, and also very lensky. so the i, c j is, is supposed to take a couple of years on this, this here. shelton at the hey, thank you very much for that update. so why is south africa bringing this case? i asked her correspondent diane hawker and it's johanna spark. most of africa believes it has. there's responsibility for a number of reasons. the 1st being that it is a signatory to the

a genocide convention that he joined to that convention in 1994 just shortly off to sub africa obtained its own democratic states. and the 2nd reason that the south african government has, as put forward is of africa's own cost of having lived through the segregation and discrimination under the apartheid state. and so there for to believes that there is an affinity between what happened to south africa and what is happening in gaza . and has decided to bring that forward a to the international court of justice and raising a number of issues as, as summarized by my colleagues. and tell us more about that history and south africa's support and, and solidarity for the palestinian cause. so the, so the derek g t, it goes back a number of years as far back to nelson mandela's period as the liberation of fi

to. we know that for example, nelson mandela spoke out quite strongly saying that south africa could never fully be free if the people of palestine were not free. and that is a sentiment that is carried forward in the current a government and also a sentiment that is felt by a number of south africans who have continued to, to show that support and solidarity for the palestinian people. and i understand that this case certainly has domestic repercussions in south africa itself. but how united would you say the different political parties within south africa are in its approach here to take this to the i c j as well. this is the, the routing amc supports the decision of the government and when it comes to opposition, politics and just the individuals that definitely is

a divide. if you look at, for example, today these, these been to be a support march that's held in take time. and that will be attended by a number of people who are in support of this move, members of the jewish community will be in attendance and also members of the muslim community, as well as other people from all walks of life. and that will be held in cape town on the opposite, opposing in however, they all political parties, such as the african christian democratic party, which has said that's of africa, should not have taken this case to quote and instead saying that some effort could, could have played a different role, but they believe that they could have been to move constructive approach if some african had chosen to rob to speak to him us, and encourage them to, to, to release the, the hostages that are currently still held. the south african jewish board of deputies as well is concerned about this approach, saying that they don't believe that's of africa should have gone to these these

lives and that they could have brought the acted as mediators in this conflict. and thank you so much for providing that perspective. as our correspondent fan hawk are interested in spark and this case is of course being closely watched within israel . i asked about it's possible response to our correspond antonio kramer in jerusalem as well. certainly there's lots of attention being paid now to the 1st day of the hearing. no one's south africa was no laying out their arguments as well . the solo on friday. and one of the things that was pointed out to some commentators is how important it is for israel is to be the of openness. the israel is a party to the genocide convention, but they have a pointed, very permanent, a former supreme court, a president and judge to lay out the arguments know is well, has firmly and very strongly rejected the accusations they're saying they're simply

defending the countries defending itself after the terror attacks perpetrated by extreme his groups such as from us and other minutes in groups in gaza. and this is echoed by the many statements that were made in the past weeks. uh, one of them by the president heard so crusade this, these claims atrocious. and this is also a defensive mentor, the sense of it in the country that actually instead of putting a israel uh on the stand on try, it should be the perpetrators of october 7th, that should be on trial antonio. one of the big questions is, what kind of actual impact a court ruling could have here? south africa we've heard is asking for the court to impose binding preliminary orders on israel, including a halt to its operations in gaza. but how likely would israel be to abide by such an icy j decision or? well, it's certainly a too early to tell. and as you said, now it's about this provision. the meshes the decision could come very soon

and, you know, some experts here have been saying then as well could be under a lot of pressure actually to comply and then also to stop, you know, the large scale military operations. but it's not quite clear what the country or will do. it could also ignore it, but it would then risk it to be isolated. also to put it's all life, such as the united states under pressure. i think it is still too early to tell what is relevant do then tonya, thank you so much for that. and that is tanya kramer. in jerusalem for us. we can turn out to some other world news headlines. germany's foreign minister and elaina barrow block has condemned to china's aggressive behavior in the south china sea. during her visit to the philippines. bearable criticized china territorial claims in the region and called for a political solution. are you in court rejected beijing's claims to disputed

territories in 2016 turkey, romania and full guerria have agreed to remove under water mines from the black sea . the 3 nato members of the mines washed into their territories after the russian invasion of ukraine. and pose a danger to shipping. flooding in the democratic republic of congo has destroyed tens of thousands of houses around the capital kinshasa. water levels in the congo river have reached their highest and almost 60 years. heavy rains and flash floods have killed nearly 300 people in recent months. off when your guinea has declared a state of emergency looting and arson in the capital port moresby have killed at least 15 people. the violence triggered by police protesting against cuts to their pay of the unrest has spread north to the city of late prime minister in james and robin has called for com or an explosion

of violence in fort moore's be marked by protests, soldiers, police and prison guards overpay cuts angry crowds towards buildings and ransack shops. as the terminal is spread far beyond the capital. 24 hours without police turned into looting on a massive scale. one group of officials and civilians forced their way through a security gate outside the prime minister's office. james morales, a apologize, but said lawlessness would not be tolerated and ties all our citizens to step up today and give us back the country one more time and thought it's your neighborhood that yesterday that happened. we have now let's look into how we report. we look at how we would bring responsible people to face a form of law. also the government has promised to fix what it called a payroll glitch. it's not so far been enough to restore order australia recently

inc. a security deal with pop in new guinea saying it's ready to help the stretch of police force. we continue to urge com at these difficult on. we haven't had any requests from the pay into a government. the local authorities are flying police reinforcements into port moore's. the to try and, and the violets. now just before we go, it is winter here in europe and that means people are lazy up there. escape and take you to the ice. check out this lake in bergen at norway has been transformed into a giant skating rink. the water does freeze over most years, but it's rare that the ice is big enough for skating. the locals are making the most of this special opportunity to be imagined as round up. but there is more on our

website and social media channels coming up next, a documentary on china's investment in serbia, and it's growing influence in europe. thanks so much for watching. take care the do these do for fun. via do gravitational wave squeeze. i thought. how do i the drums for the to the feet and what's the perfect kid for parkside? find the on says get with dw signs on the picked up channels. the.