the icj international court of justice will decide whether to. emergency measures relating to the us-israeli genocidal war in gaza. although the court will not deal with the main question of whether israel is committing genocide or not, it will look at possible emergency measures requested by south africa to restrain israel's actions, but will it do that even if it announces that israely actions do constitute that a genocide is taking place? we're going to ask those questions from our guests as to whether the us will continue backing israel also in this genocidal war which israel is. on the ground,

but first let's take a look at this report on what the subject of our spotlight program is. our guest joining us, is a senior research fellow at the global policy institute from london, also authen political activist who joins us from montreal. okay, i jumped the gun uh, a little too quickly, before engaging with our guests, let's watch this comprehensive report. this is gaza, where israel's air and artillery strikes have become a regular accurrence. in the besieged strip, sounds of bombardment are followed by screams of mothers losing their kids. as well

as cries of children whose parents are killed by the raji. tens of thousands of palestinians, most of them women and kids of have been killed in the relentless strikes since october 7th. humanitarian organizations report that more than 10 children average lose one or both of their legs per day in the coastal territory, and that's just one aspect of the unending cycle of israel's brutality against the people of gaza, apart from casualties, the regime's recurring attacks have caused indescribable devastation in the palestinian territory, but when it comes to describing the true nature of the israeli on slot, there's no word better than genocide. there are multiple reports and countless evidence indicating that what's taking place in gaza meets the definition of a genocidal war. since the very beginning of the donslot millions of people around the world, along with number of states. have been calling on

international institutions to oblige israel to end the genocide. south africa is one of those states, the country in late december filed a lawsuit against israel at the international court of justice. now, nearly one month after the lawsuit was filed, the hag-based court is said to conven on friday to decide on south africa's request for an interim ruling in its genocide case against israel. the possible verdict by the icj would order israel to announce sece fire in gaza and allow more humanitarian. aid into the palestinian territory, in its filing, pretoria referred to israel's violation of the united nations 1948 geneside convention. south africa's application includes multiple offenses from indiscriminate killing of palestinians to the wholesale destruction of gaza's infrastructure. earlier in january, the hag-based court convened two day hearings. at the closing of the first day, the south african ambassador to the netherlands asked the court to order israel to immediately suspend its on. on the besieg

strip: one, the state of israel shall immediately suspend its military operations in and against gaza. two, the state of israel shall ensure that any military or irregular armed units, which may be directed, supported or influenced by it, as well as any organizations and persons which may be subject to its control, direction. or influence take no steps in fatherherance of the military operations referred to in point one above. south africa's move has been welcomed by palestinian resistance movements. hamas said the arguments and evidence put forth by south africa proves israel's crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing in gaza. the palestinian foreign ministry also applauded the move calling it a historic moment for humanity. this is a historic. moment for the

palestinian people and for humanity as well as for the world order based on law, number of countries and international organizations have welcomed south africa's case at the icj, the organization of islamic country. oic and the arab league expressed their support for the case. malaysia, turkey, jordan and iran are among the states wising support for the motion. israel's crimes against palestinians in gaza have also been referred to the international criminal court. mexico and chile have requested the icc to probe the crimes against civilians in gaza. submitting lawsuits at international courts are parts of global efforts to mandate israel to put an end to its non-stop strikes on gaza as their sc nature dove tail with the widely accepted narrative that the onslaught is actually a genocidal war. okay uh let me start with you george samuel uh we just heard that report and a quick question tell us what the icj court is going to decide on and make announcement on perhaps that they probably

will ask for some provisional measures uh that israel should take but there will be much less um than uh south africa had asked for, i think they probably will ask for much greater access to humanitarian assistance. i think they will um ask for a great deal more restraint on the part of uh israeli politicians, israeli leaders as to what they say, in other words to uh cut back any kind of incendiary comments that that sound like um a call for genocide. and that means they may even ask that those who have made these incendiary comments should be uh punished. um, i don't think they're going to ask uh israel to uh cease all military operations. i just don't think the votes are there. i mean, the 17 judges, if you consider how they are

likely to vote, you think about what countries they come from, the judges that come from nato countries, i think almost certainly will not vote to ask. to restrain uh in to cut off its military operations um and i think even some of the countries that are not in nato but are closely aligned with the united states such as japan will also not uh ask israel to cease military operation so i think it'll be very limited uh measures that uh the icj will ask for tomorrow. if they don't do that evenler doesn't that give israel um a green light to continue with its uh operations and why wouldn't they uh question uh israel whether israel's committing genocide? well, why wouldn't they? is the politics of it? as my colleague just stated that uh, the there's a lot of pressure from the nato countries, g7, um, there's whether it gives a green light, uh, i think

that decision that isn't uh pretty clearly saying that israel needs to cease its violence, israel will try to spin that as a green light, i i don't think that's... exactly correct, but that is that is how it will probably israel try to to spin it. um, but i think irrespective of that obviously, this provisional ruling that says they should cease their violence is what i'm hoping for, and i think probably what most of humanity is hoping for, but i i think just the process certainly within canada, where i'm speaking from, forcing israel to forcing. to the popular discussion that there's that there are people saying this is a genocide um and have forcing the israel lobby to react to that has been a positive exercise now i'm you know just hoping fingers cross that it's it's better decision than my the previous speaker

stated and it says that they should cease their violence just by chance what if the icj does find israel to have committed? side or make remarks to that effect and maybe even go for asking us for a ceasefire against all of what uh you have said that george samiley, what would happen then? well obviously in that case israel would ignore such decision and um israel's allies, namely the united states and to lesser extent the united kingdom and germany would say this is a biased court uh... "this is totally unfair, totally outrageous, um, israel has to defend itself, israel has to continually have at at the front of its mind, october the 7th, october the 7th, october the 7th, and so they'll just say, let's just ignore it, i mean, let's remember the united states has in

the past ignored uh, icj rulings, i mean in 1986, the icj ruled that the united states was waging an illegal war against nicaragua." that he was uh sponsoring a terrorist group in nicaragua and it was unlawfully um mining the ports of nicaragua and the united states just simply said well we don't care um so... "i think israel will probably do that, but of course it without question, if if the icj does make such a ruling tomorrow, it will be very devastating public relations blow to israel, because i mean the the the genocide convention was created precisely in response to what had happened to the jews in world war ii, and so for israel now to be essentially accused and and found by the icj. be engaging in genocide, that's that's a serious blow to israel, and how would that stand if that was

to be the case for the us eve zangler? uh, it would put lot of pressure on the us, there's no doubt, i i the us is is uh, is backing israel's slaughter in so many different ways, um, through arms shipments, through diplomacy, intelligence, on and on and on, um, it would put, it would ramp up the pressure on the biden administration, which is already under significant pressure internally within the the left wing of the democratic party, biden can't go and speak in public anymore without being heckled for his backing of israel's genocide, so it would ramp up the pressure on the us and it would have a would here in canada would ramp the pressure up on the trudeau government to to stop enabling, and i think... probably also in in the uk and and other european countries obviously they'll try to germany which is

intervened intervening on in israel's behalf on this uh will try to dismiss it but even those places where they try to dismiss it like the us it's going to ratchet up the pressure to uh and and i think there's probably it may even be some elements of the israeli government that would find that the ruling by the ic j gives them some sort of out, clearly they're not going to succeed in destroying hamas uh um and there segments it seems like of the israeli uh establishment that that wants uh to figure out some way out the disaster that they are uh causing for israel's long-term uh uh power um so maybe the icj ruling a good icj ruling would even enable them to uh justify uh down their violence, when you take a look a statement made by the former chief of staff of the

israeli regime forces, this is what he has said joys, whoever speaks of the absolute defeat of hamas and gaza, and of it no longer having the will or the capability to harm israel is not speaking the truth, basically you having many who are saying that and that has caused rifts within the israely cabinet and of course the general public at large, do you think that that will prove to be? uh driving force to maybe have the israeli regime uh stop what it can't achieve uh because then what purpose does it have uh executing this us is really genocidal war? well there's no question, mean that um there are very real divisions in israel uh among the political leadership and the military leadership uh they don't think this war is going particularly well they don't see any um prospect of victory, which means that um netanyahu is just continuing with this uh

slaughter, israel is obviously losing whatever support it has in the outside world, but also they're not really getting anywhere uh militarily and there's no prospect of any improvement. however, i think that's separate from trying to comply with a ruling from the icj, i don't think anyone in israel you... whatever disagreements they might have with netanyahu, i don't think anyone in israel will accept the principle that israel should adhere to a ruling from an international court, now you the icc, the israel obviously doesn't recognize the jurisdiction of the icc, so no one cares about that, but israel does um respect sort of the icj, it does at least accept the jurisdiction of the icj, even though it ignored the icj ruling on on the wall, the... that it built around the west bank, so i don't think that they will

just simply say, okay, well the icj called on us to sees all military operations that we we're going to do what they tell us to do, i don't think that's going to happen, that's why i think it's much more likely that they'll be asked to do some limited things which israel could accept, though they can accept it verbally, it doesn't mean they'll actually do it practically, they're not going implement it practically, but at least say okay shine, we'll do that, it that's much more likely that... they'll do something limited than to agree to something major such as ceasing all military operations. what do you make engler of the proposal that is israel made for pause as it call? did uh for the captives to be released and exchange for the prisoners that israel is holding in phases which also included palestinians to return to gaza city. um this happened in the span of 24 hours where there were roughly 24 regime forces were also killed. do you think uh israel is realizing maybe the riding on the wall here? uh, well i think that was

probably more of a of a play to the uh uh parents. the of those held in or the family members of those held in in gaza, and this was a way for netanyahu to show that he's um, you know, trying to get their release, um, i think it's maybe distinct from the the realization that the military campaign is not going as well as they would they would hope, um, but i don't know, i think that it's also the military camp. pain thing is is, i don't believe that netanyahu thought he was going to actually eliminate uh hamas uh, i don't necessarily believe that he believed his you know initial rhetoric um because their objective is, i think there is they would like to eliminate hamas if they could, but also they they want to they want to drive people out of of gaza, they want to make gaza unlivable, so so the their own rhetoric of

fighting till all hamas is eliminated was is of course partly sort of a... justification for just you know killing and killing in in in gaza and and fighting for maybe throughout all of 2024 like some have some have stated um but uh but so i think israel's you know they they're not succeeding militarily like they would have wanted to, but i don't know that they've they've been defeated either in the sense that that their aim is not is not uh solely to uh to actually get hamas but is actually just to terrorize. palestinians in gaza, well this uh thing that uh netanyahu has proposed along with the other far right ministers, george samuel is called voluntary migration. i'm not too sure how voluntary this could be when you're proposing it to people who are starving, they're being bombed etc. um, but it's quite interesting how they also use the word immigration in in the mix

of things, um is is that is that isn't that against international law and by some accounts if i'm not uh that it's a it's a war crime to do that? absolutely, it's it's a war crime, mean it's essentially ethnic cleansing, mean making conditions for life so intolerable that people have no choice but to leave um is undoubtedly a war crime, it's going to be quite hard to pull something like that off because um the united states israel's enabler has kind of drawn a line in the sand to the... that the united states ever really draws a line in the sand for israel, but publicly it has said this is something they will not accept um and and of course egypt and jordan have said that they're not going to cooperate with any plan along those lines, but there are states that maybe you know if you could bribe them, give them enough money, they'll go along with

israel, i mean there been stories that there are states in africa that will cooperate in something uh like this, um, i, i, i, i mean, we're talking about an awful lot of people, and i don't know whether you, you, if one african country takes 10,00, and another takes another 10,00, we're still a long way from two million people, so i don't quite know how the math is going to work for this israel plan, um, but, but undoubtedly, it's a horrific uh plan, and certainly um, while the... cj case is going to go on, because that's that's that's going to be an ongoing thing for several years, um, not a good idea for israel to to go down that part. eves angler, iran uh weeks ago said that the icc needs to treat the charges against the israeli regime uh impartially, quote, we hope and want the icc to impartially investigate the complaint of south africa and some other

governments against the zinist regime and not given to us pressure, do you think the us would pressure the icj in this case? uh yeah, well i mean i think just publicly the public comments that have been stated uh were form of pressure uh and uh i have a little doubt that behind the scenes uh us officials uh uh are are pressuring the court, i mean the history of us foreign policy and is one that um following the independence of courts is not something that they would uh uh take uh take too seriously. all right, thank you very much to you both. uh, that's angler, author and political activist montreal, and george samiali, senior research fellow, global policy institute at the london metropolitan university. from budapest, thank you, with that we come to an end for this edition of the spotlight, thanks for tuning in from me, and the team, it's goodbye.

when palestinian journalist, shirin abu agile was killed by nisvy sniper on may 11, 2022. "the israel is meant to get across a clear message, that they don't want any narrative other than their own under decades old occupation of palestinian lands and their aggression. it wasn't the first time israeli sought to put gag on the alternative narrative, and every time it has failed. watch the history of the israeli measures. and palestinian counter measures in this documentary. since mid-november 2023,

the yemen-based anseral movement has attacked dozens of commercial ships destined to the occupied territories. the tags have practically halted commercial activities in the port de villat in the occupied territories. "i think that that shipping companies uh will will not rush uh back to the uh red sea. the us and uk have militarized the region with their strikes on yemen, an exodus of shipping companies from the region now threens to scuttle supply chains and increase consumer prices. well, definitely there will be some influence on inflation. i mean, it's a little difficult at this stage to to predict how much of a jump in inflation." the us militarizing the red sea and the global economic impact in this edition of economic divide.

more than 500 the children were killed during the conflict, what have they done wrong

being? born in gaza is not the crime, more than year after the war was waged by the israeli regime on the gaza strip, and approximately year after the cairo donors conference was held for rebuilding gaza, the reconstruction project is still teatering between the cruelty of the siege and the procrastination of the israeli regime. what we are doing here to keep people surviving, we are not talking about quality of life in gaza, if you talk deeply in what is going on in gaza, you will find out big slogan that there is no tomorrow. all agree that the slowdown in the reconstruction is due to the slow process of transferring funds pledged by the donor countries of the cairo conference, where the unwer received only $270 million, while the required budget is much more.