south africa has brought a genocide case against israel to the icj. in the first day of deliberations, lawmakers made a compelling case against israel, which included war crimes. but how will this court, which can issue an interm verdict, hold israel to account, but it has no authority to enforce them. in this edition of the spotlight, we will look at the substance of the deliberations. but in the context of whether

it will prevent israel from continuing with this genocide, this is what iran has urged the international court of justice to treat the charges brought against the israely regime by south africa impartially and not to given to us pressures. our guest for this edition of the splot light include richard medhurs, a journalist and commentator who joins us from vienna. also joining us journalist and political analyst who joins us of from brussels. gentlemen, welcome to you both. richard mercurist, i'll first start with you. i mean, it was incredible to hear hour after hour after hour of these deliberations, which uh, each one of them had so many things to say, even though some of it may have overlapped, but we're looking a decision that is expected in weeks and uh, the the way that it works is that the decisions are binding, but that the icj has no way of enforcing them. um, is that? what

should be the focus here or the focus of what uh these deliberations and the news that it has made and the coverage from this, perhaps is more effective than anything else, maybe. hi, thanks for having me on, there's there's no doubt whatsoever that the fact that israel's crimes are on display in a in a courtroom and this is the the highest judicial body um and one of the six organs of the united nations uh is is without a doubt a step in the right direction. uh, we have to also acknowledge that this, this is a highly politicized court, uh, the united states and israel um have made sure that the entire legal framework uh, post world war ii, um, with all its nice institutions uh, and and organizations, uh, is gained and rigged, and we know for fact that the united states and israel have uh, you lobbied the international atomic energy agency in vienna uh, against iran, uh, we know that they have lobbied and uh infiltrated the... organization for the

prohibition of chemical weapons against syria and so we shouldn't be surprised um if this court uh does end up uh not ruling in favor of south africa, nevertheless we have to commend and applaud uh south africa for what in they've done because they are really standing up for international law, they they have lived through apartide, they have lived through the racism, the violence that comes with settler colonialism and they relate to the palestinian cause um and the the uh i believe elijah uh correctly pointed out um that you know this is not an arab or a muslim country and uh no one can accuse them of having some sort of bias in favor of the palestinians uh even though the arguments would be just as solid and legitimate uh and hearing the the evidence in this courtroom uh for for once for the first time uh is is i mean it's really having palestinians voices heard across the world and it's no wonder that mainstream media not one channel, the

bbc uh sky or cnn bothered to live stream uh the the you know the world's highest court uh talking about the world's most important political event and war, and so just the fact that these crimes are brought to light is already victory for the palestinians, israel is losing on the battlefield, they have failed to achieve a single objective, uh its economy is tatters uh they are under embargo by yemen and their image is now also ruined internationally, well many of the things that were um referred to in the deliberations, which included war crimes, elijah, um, we're pointed uh at the fact that israel is the one that's committing these uh genocidal crimes, but uh, one of the questions that comes about is why is it that the us is not uh mentioned or is not does not have case against it brought to the icj when it is the one that is not only giving the military assistance, but by some accounts is involved in the planning and the execution when it comes to intel and even having tips on the ground, so what do

you think that there is a possibility of case being presented against the us also, which in some respects, maybe even having a higher responsibility in terms of the genocide that's being? committed in the gaza strap? well, that will be indirectly really, because the court of justice is presenting the case, south africa has presented the case with more than 200 testimony based upon the israeli officials who are decision makers like the heritage minister or the defense minister or the finance or the security minister or the vice speaker and mainly the testimony of united nation personnel and officials, including the secretary general antonio guteres who said gaza is becoming the word grav, therefore it is not to judge who is

supporting israel at this particular moment, it may not be able to decide if there are genocide committed legally in israel, but it's more than enough to demonstrate that there is intent in the first place, and secondly, to have a preliminary decision that can come out in only few weeks, because the final decision needs a few years, and to say that israel needs to stop the bombardment and hal all the military operation, that will be victory to gaza in the first place, because this happened in the past in with ukraine, for example, versus russia where the international court took a decision within only few weeks, therefore this is what the south african are aiming, and why south africa in such a splendid position? because the 350 years of upper tide regime were the

best supportive of israel, and they were good friends who helped the israelies to make nuclear bombs and they were telling each other that were they were uppertile regimes. and there was a case in 2004 because of the uppertide wall that the international tribunal dealt with and pronounced its opinion, so for now it will be victory for gaza, but it will be defeat for the us and all the allies who supported the crime in gaza, who are supplying weapons to to israel, particularly the us and germany who are the main two suppliers and will embarrass or the european and other countries who did not come forward to accuse israel of at least crime against humanity and war crime. the genocide needs to be proved for particular action, not only words and that can wait. now what is

important is to stop the war, but under strict accusation to israel that it is far from being democratic, it is committing crimes. and uh against humanity and war crimes. all right, um, i'd like to amplify more um and put on the microscope the role of the us here, richard matters, there is misunderstanding or maybe uh there is an understanding but is not covered as much when it comes to the us role in this war. we know that is providing uh israel with military equipment, unfederate access, that's pretty much a given and it's out there, but the active participation when it comes to the execution of the war, the intel that it provides the us, uh, the way it has operatives on the ground, these types of... things are not covered, kind of the way that it did with the yemen war throughout the nine years, which led to 400 or 500 thousand yemenes to uh actually be slaughtered there, um, what do you think about that, that this us role maybe is even a step above what israel is doing in terms of the overall

genocide in the gaza strip? yeah, without question, i mean, you know, secretary of state, blincan goes around and he speaks in very soft and and soothing voice, but he has just as much blood on his. and says any israeli cabinet minister or netanyahu, uh, you know, we should not forget that zinanism comes from the west, it's a western creation, um, and it is to this day uphelled by the british and american political and media establishment, and when we talk about western support, you mentioned intelligence and logistical support, but there's media coverage, i mean the way that uh palestinians are dehumanized, the new york times ran headline saying that uh, nine israeli soldiers killed was underscoring the cost of the war. how about 23,00 palestinians killed? what about their fighters killed? the resistance fighters who who have legal and moral right uh to to fight for national liberation, why are they never mourned? uh, so there's an entire media apparatus that kicks into gear every time there's a war uh,

whether it's in syria or in yemen or in palestine, to defend and justify what our acts of genocide. if we look at the entire war on, war of terror, i should, i should probably call it, uh, millions of people... were killed and displaced in muslim countries, in arab countries, and you should effectively, we should all effectively call this also a genocide. what south africa did today is they started by referring to this as the... going nekba uh which is, which started in 1948 and uh even before that uh, and this was very good move on their part, because this is the correct language, this is the correct framing, um, it is not what israel says about october 7th, this has been going on for lot longer, and if we look at the united states role uh, we have six different fronts in this region, we have the west bank uh, which is another front in the gaza war, we have iraq, syria, uh, lebanon, yemen, the united states is active in every single one of... these places uh the reason the resistance are attacking the bases, the us bases in arbil and and asad and komar inside

of iraq and syria is to punish the americans for their um complicity and and and their involvement in this genocide uh when yemen fired at the american ship uh yesterday uh you know this is this is not just to get back at them for the the saudi war uh this is also to punish them for killing 10 marines the other day and uh coming all the way to the the uh the arabian sea and the babel mendip straight for the sake of defending israel, so uh, it's high time that people in the west woke up and realized that uh all this money that should be spent on infrastructure on them is being thrown towards israel. britain, america have no business being in this region, they have no business going there and and and spending money and and uh bending over backwards just to support israel uh zionism does not benefit anyone uh except the arms industry and a bunch of... indoctrinated christian zionists, this is a terrorist uh, it's a movement rooted in terrorism, people

do not know that the hagana uh, which is, a terrorist organization is now the israeli defense forces, and uh, even though these used to be despised in britain, now britain supports them, uh, there's something deeply, deeply wrong with the way that west supports israel, and public opinion needs to be woken up, and south africa are achieving that through their case at the icj. well, they need to be working up to the way that the us is going. about making sure that this uh genocidal war continues, elijah magniere, we can take a look at the way that the us uses and this has been said so many times, but it needs to be said again, i think the way the us uses this veto uh at the un uh, which prevents for example from seasfire um to happen or the way that the us uh goes around and makes uh statements, i mean um the statement that the us secretary of the national security advisor spokes person actually made is quite telling in terms of the way that uh um it it shows um i'm not too sure how to explain it, the way that uh the us uh posturing is, these are the words,

meritless, counterproductive and completely without any basis in facts whatsoever, the submission of south africa um israel's case to the icj, why would the us use these words, this with the us national security council spokesman use these words uh to describe the way that south africa south africa has uh submitted the case. of israel to uh the icj? it is absolutely not surprising, because if we start uh putting behind bars or at least a court of justice all those committing crimes in against humanity and war crimes, we should start with the us, we in the world haven't uh still remember in a vivid memory what the us has done in afghanistan, in iraq, in syria, in libya, etc. "all these are crimes against humanity and war crimes that have been committed by the americans, so

exactly like the definition of terrorism and state terrorism, why people in my country don't want to define that, because they will be the first to be accused, and here the americans are in solidarity with the israelis for numerous reasons. first of all, they are the one supporting israel from day one, secondly, they said we ship 230." aircraft and 30 ship to israel full of ammunition in the middle of the war when israel was committing war crimes and crimes against humanity when the united nation was saying that this crisis is started more than 50 years ago and there are killing of civilians and the united nation personnel 133 were killed so all these are killed with the clear intention that the american have supported by accusing the closest ally of america in the

middle east, that is israel, by accusing the israelis for their action, it means directly accusing the americans in the public word of opinion, because the americans were not asking for sess fire, were vating the seasfire, were still coming out on television, saying no seat fire, the word should, the war should continue, encouraging... israel to change its phases but not to stop the war and asking the americans not to target civilians as if the american bombs can see only hamas and cannot... seeds the children and women when the united nation is saying 70% of those killed are children and women, so all this hypocrisy is exposed in the world arena today where the world is really hungry to see for once the international law is respected and is going to be ask for every single country

to respect the international law and to stand in front of the court for all the... crime and crime against humanity, this is what the americans are afraid of, dragging israel to the international court and then presenting the case to the international criminal court, that it means you can replace israel with america or any other nato country that participated to all these crimes, it will be exactly the same, then the world will judge these countries, and that is terrifying for the americans. the us secretary of defense, i understand is in the... the us national security um advisor um along with um, i'm not so sure if blincan said this or not, richard matters, but uh, it really stands out the statement that they made, we are making sure that israel goes from high intensity to low intensity, high intensity to low intensity means in part that this was to save civilian

lives, that they're going to go from few hundred uh killed or murdered. uh under 24 hour basis to maybe 150, isn't this uh what where the problem is that we're looking at uh the lack of uh value for a palestinian life to be put uh into this type of uh terminology and viewpoint in this case coming from the us? absolutely and the they're essentially admitting that israel is uh able to you know do things differently but chooses not to because of america uh put this very eloquently that if you try the israelis you have to put everybody else who who helped them on uh and and assisted them uh on trial as well and uh you know the first article of the genocide convention is that you you prevent and punish uh people who carry out genocide which is what yemen are doing uh by by blockading the israelis uh you know just today we heard in in the international court

of justice that average the israelis are killing uh two palestinian mothers every hour uh they're killing hundreds of children every single day, you know uh, what does that mean to go from high intensity to low intensity? the they will kill one mother an hour, they will kill 50 children a day. uh, it's the whole point of what everyone is trying to argue is that before october 7th, this was this was the norm, every two years go and destroy gaza, uh, bomb lebanon, kill journalists and and elijah also talked about the un workers, uh, this is not the first time that israel attacks. positions, they've also bombed unifill before and killed uh uh you and stuff, uh, this is matter of policy for the israeli, so um, the the, i'm glad that today the lawyers in of south africa brought up the uh self-incriminating tiktok videos that israeli soldiers film of themselves laughing as they blow up people's houses uh, you can't, i don't understand how you would go from that to low intensity, there's a a cultural uh uh uh, a political

problem here is that that is that is rooted in zionism where you know um israelis are the so-called chosen people and everybody else is a subhuman in their view uh this is deeply racist, it's it's genocidal binature, and this is why they they opened their argument with the term nekba, because since the very second that uh, you know israel was was uh created, it was top of palestinians land, it was at the expense of palestinians and it's also worth pointing out that israel is illegally occupying three countries, it's occupying shaba farms and lebanon and the syrian. and goland heights and bombing uh these countries whenever it pleases. uh, we we really have issue here with western imperialism and zinanism at the core, and i'm really glad that today more awareness is being raised through social media, through this icj case, and people cannot control populations anymore as they used to through the education system and mainstream media, they are they are really failing at their

jobs and the the zionist project is experiencing a crisis like never before. i listed before the military and economic... uh dimensions of that, but also from an image point of view and uh their identity, they are experiencing a crisis and uh we have half million israeli settlers that have left uh, this shows you that uh it's its days are numbered and uh you know countries that call themselves - you know champions of human rights and free speech should have nothing to do with israel, we cannot have international law and legal framework um that that upholds these values and support israel and behave like this at the same time it's just it doesn't work. at the same time you have what appears to be a difference of opinion for like for better way to describe this elijah magnier, and that is about the future of palestinians, as if the us has a right to decide that. none. less the us secretary of state blincan was on this uh region has talked to number of the um countries and has uh uh said that there is an interestuh in the future governance uh that he's laid out a

plan that these countries might entertain at the same time you have netanyahu the pm who is said uh there's voluntary migration i'm not too sure how voluntary migration takes place under bombs and uh bulldozers and starvation and disease nevertheless what what is the story there i mean these two are... clashing in terms of the future of palestinians? well, there is a wishful thinking and there is a reality on the ground, so far the israelis have failed to achieve any of their declared objective to defeat hamas and to free all the prisoners, therefore they can speculate and they can plan and they can express their wishful thinking about the third phase, when the first phase hasn't been completed, the still hamas is capable of. tel aviv is still hamas is capable of attacking the israeli occupation forces every single day, mainly in the north, on the border with gaza, on airs

crushing in the south, in kannuns everywhere, every single day the israelis are announcing we have between 10 to 20 israeli officers and soldiers killed and wondered if these figures are right, therefore it is really waste of time to talk about the second and the third phase, moreover, "it is no longer in the hand the americans to talk about peace process, because they have failed, and i don't think the situation before the 7th of october uh is going to be the same after the 7th of october. there is a clear defeat of israel today, there is a clear defeat of the israeli army, there is victory of the resistance that managed to stand against what used to be called invincible army, there is insecurity in all the..." settlements in israel in the north on the borders with lebanon and the with gaza, therefore it is not going to be the role of the us for the future of

palestine. thank you very much. we're fresh out of time. all magne, journalist and political analyst. richard meters, thank you so much, journalist and commentator uh from vienna. with that we come to an end for this edition of the spotlight. thanks for being with us from the team. it's goodbye. and give rise to the breaches of the convention is adila has seem to address the court, you have the for madam, south africa contends that, israel has transgressed article two of the convention by committing actions that fall within the definition of genocide. the actions show a systematic

pattern of conduct from which genocide can be inferred.

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love felest i you because i like palestine, yeah, yeah, yeah, i don't like you, i don't like palestine, okay, oh, palestine, oh, oh, the palestine, oh oh no, very good, very good, okay,

the headlines on press tv, south africa ures the international court of justice to immediately stop the israely genocide in gaza. palestinian officials in the gaza strip say israel is using genocide and starvation as a policy to force garzans out of the territory and yamensurlah leader abdul malik al huti wants the us of tough response to any aggression against this country.