Written by: Bruce Katz

On December 29, 2023, the government of South Africa filed an application instituting proceedings against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning alleged violations by Israel of its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the “Genocide Convention”) in relation to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. In its application to the ICJ, South Africa wrote that:

“Israel, since 7 October 2023 in particular, has failed to prevent genocide and has failed to prosecute the direct and public incitement to genocide” and that “Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

South Africa also asked that the ICJ indicate provisional measures with an eye to seeking a ceasefire in the conflict in Gaza.

On January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice rendered its verdict regarding South Africa’s demand for a provisional measure requiring a ceasefire in the conflict in Gaza. While the provisional measures granted by the International Court of Justice didn’t demand an immediate ceasefire ), its ruling that the claim that Israel is in violation of the Genocide Convention (signed by 152 countries) is “plausible”, is an historical and momentous ruling.

In near unanimity, the court instructed Israel to deliver a report to South Africa in a month for its review. Israel is obliged to detail how, when and where it has taken the “compulsory measures not only to prevent genocide, but also the incitement to genocide and to allow humanitarian aid to reach the starving and destitute souls who call the devastated enclave home.”

What is implied by the ruling is that for all intent and purpose, Israel must adopt a ceasefire. South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said during a news conference following the ICJ ruling,” “I believe that in exercising the order, there would have to be a ceasefire.” The ruling states as well that Israel must permit humanitarian aid to enter Gaza and not restrict it. As stated by Andrew Mitrovica in an Al Jazeera article, “Near unanimously, the court, in effect, rejected the establishment media notion that the calamity unfolding in Gaza was a ’war’ between adversaries; but, rather, is prima facie evidence of a deliberate campaign by Israel to erase, wholesale, a people and a nation.”

Virtually following the ICJ ruling, Israel announced that several members of UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for providing much needed assistance to the beleaguered Palestinian people, had been involved in the Palestinian resistance’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7. UNWRA ordered an investigation into Israel’s claim – based on documents provided by Israel - and in the interim fired without evidence nine of its employees who allegedly took part. Israel has a history of fabricating ‘evidence’ for the purpose of spreading disinformation. Its attack on UNWRA coincides with the ICJ ruling in favour of South Africa. Israel lied about its initial attack on Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza, fabricated the story about Hamas beheading babies (which continues to circulate in some media) and a New York Times article depicting the rape of Israeli women by Hamas has been debunked, yet this continues to be circulated by the corporate media.

Whatever the facts about the UNWRA employees might have been (we now know that there is no evidence whatsoever of any of the UNWRA employees having taken part in the October 7 attack; Channel 4 in the UK and the UK’s The Guardian have debunked it), the ICJ ruling states categorically that Israel must take measures to improve the humanitarian situation for Palestinian civilians in Gaza. That ruling is also binding on all 152 countries as per their own support for the humanitarian situation of the population in Gaza.

It is clear to all observers that any cuts to UNWRA aggravate the already dire living conditions of the civilian population of Gaza. Agency chiefs in the UN’s highest-level humanitarian coordination forum, including the heads of the WHO, the UN rights office, UNICEF and the World Food Programme, “warned defunding UNRWA risked a “catastrophic” humanitarian collapse in Gaza.” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, “There is no other humanitarian player in Gaza who can provide food and water and medicine at the scale that UNRWA does.” It appears that Genocide Joe does not see it that way.

More than two-thirds of the 28,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza are women and children and more than 67,000 have been injured since October 7, 2023. There are more than 8000 Gazans missing, buried under the rubble from Israeli carpet-bombing. The entire population in Gaza is on the point of famine. On January 31, 2024, Israel was accused of further war crimes after thirty bodies secured in plastic body bags were discovered in the Khalifa bin Zayed school in Beit Lahia in north Gaza following Israeli forces' withdrawal.

In the meantime, fanatical young Israelis are blocking aid from entering Gaza while complicit Israeli soldiers stand by and watch. There is no doubting the fact that this is part and parcel of the fascist Netanyahu coalition’s policy of starving the Palestinians to death. Netanyahu has announced and begun to carry out a brutal attack on Rafah, the only remaining so-called ‘safe’ zone for Gaza’s civilian population. The population of Rafah has now grown exponentially from around 200,000 to more than one million.

This represents the final stage of the Zionist plan to drive the Palestinians into the Sinai, conceivably to erect a new concentration camp for the Palestinians on Egyptian soil. Israel would subsequently reoccupy Gaza for the development of illegal colonies there, thus putting the last touches on the original Zionist plan for Greater Israel. Egypt has threatened to suspend its peace agreement with Israel, should the latter launch a ground offensive in Rafah. Whether or not Egypt goes through with its threat, there is no doubting the fact that an Israeli incursion into Rafah may very well lead to a much wider regional war.

Canadian leaders’ continued support for genocide

It is against these facts of genocide and war crimes committed by Israel against the civilian population of Gaza, that we turn to Canada’s position on both the ICJ ruling and the question of funding to UNWRA. On January 12, 2024, following the announcement of the accusation levied against Israel at the ICJ, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that “his government's support for the International Court of Justice as a key institution of international law does not mean it backs the premise of the genocide claim brought by South Africa against Israel.”

That same day, Canada’s Foreign Minister, Melanie Joly echoed Trudeau’s statement and went on to say that, "Under the UN's 1948 Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide requires the intention to destroy or partly destroy a group because of their nationality, ethnicity, race or religion. Meeting this high threshold requires compelling evidence.” Joly went on to underscore the narrative that has been used by pro-Israel organizations to stifle support for the case against Israel by stating: "We must ensure that the procedural steps in this case are not used to foster antisemitism and targeting of Jewish neighbourhoods, businesses and individuals. At the same time, we will continue to stand against Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiment."

In short, ‘antisemitism’ is to be drawn as a parallel to the Israeli genocide being committed in Gaza.

What does Trudeau’s ‘premise’ infer in the face of the bombing of hospitals, clinics, cultural centers, mosques, churches, residential buildings, the killing of 28,000 human beings in Gaza and the injuring of another 67,000, the forced displacement of 1.7 million civilians and a campaign by Israel to destroy Palestinian lives by way of a deliberate campaign to cause a generalized famine? Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre dismissed the genocide allegation against Israel as a 'shameless' attack, thereby expressing his contempt both for the International Court of Justice – the UN’s highest court- and for the principle of the rule-of-law. It is, in effect the denial of genocide and constitutes complicity in that genocide.

Four days later, on January 16, Trudeau and Joly held a press conference to clarify Canada’s position on the case before the ICJ. Officials at Global Affairs Canada said that “Canada will abide by all rulings arising from South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.” If that is indeed the case, how does the Trudeau government explain the contradiction between ‘abiding by the ruling’ of the ICJ and suspending humanitarian aid to Gaza by suspending the financing of UNWRA? In effect, suspending aid to UNWRA constitutes contravening the ICJ order that Israel (and all 152 countries which are signatories to the Genocide Convention) must see to it that substantial, unrestricted humanitarian aid must be allowed to enter Gaza. In contravening the ICJ order, the government of Canada is in contempt of the International Court of Justice ruling which, it must be repeated, is binding on all 152 countries.

Further to Trudeau, Joly and Poilievre being in contempt of the ICJ ruling is the fact – as mentioned in a CBC article by Evan Dyer – that Trudeau and Joly cut funding to UNWRA “ without seeing evidence to back Israel's claims of UNRWA-Hamas collusion.” In fact, there is no such evidence. Britain's Channel Four News obtained a copy of a dossier that the government of Israel shared with the U.K. government, which also cut funding to UNRWA. According to Channel Four, the Israeli document was only six pages long and did not include any proof of UNWRA participation in the October 7 attack. Channel 4 noted that all 13,000 of UNRWA’s Gaza employees’ names “have been checked against the U.N. terrorism list and, as recently as last May, were vetted and approved by Israel.”

Channel Four’s Lindsey Hilsum who broke the story wrote on X:

“We got hold of Israel’s dossier against UNRWA - why did the donors including the UK withdraw funding on such flimsy unproven allegations before an investigation?”

The UK’s Sky News corroborated the Channel Four report, stating: “The Israeli intelligence documents make several claims that Sky News has not seen proof of and many of the claims, even if true, do not directly implicate UNRWA.” The Daily Beast also obtained a copy of the Israeli dossier and—similar to Channel 4—reported that it “includes little evidence to back up” Israel’s allegations against UNRWA employees. Ashish Prashar, a spokesperson for Gaza Voices, said in response to the new reporting that “we now know that the document used to suspend funding to UNRWA ‘provides no evidence. Prashar went on to state: “People in Gaza are starving, and because of spurious allegations made in a dodgy dossier, they will experience worse hunger.

This scandal should lead to resignations from officials in the U.S., UK, Germany, and elsewhere who all suspended funding to a besieged people experiencing a genocide as a result of a baseless accusation by the genocidaires themselves. Moreover, Israeli forces have repeatedly been accused by U.N. experts and human rights groups of using torture to extract forced confessions from Palestinian detainees.

Israel has once again fabricated a lie, this one about UNWRA employees participating in the October 7 Palestinian resistance operation (Israel has attempted to have UNWRA dismantled since its inception in 1949). Despite this fabrication being revealed the Trudeau government still refuses to restore funding to UNWRA, consequently proving that it fully supports the genocide taking place in Gaza and has no qualms about contravening the ICJ ruling. Let us be clear about the implications: the genocide in Gaza could not continue without the support of Genocide Joe Biden, Genocide Justin and Genocide Melanie.

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Bruce Katz is a founding member and current co-president of PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity), a Montreal-based pro-Palestinian solidarity organization.

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