Explainer: the genocide charge against Israel

In his powerful dissenting opinion at the ICJ, Israeli ad hoc Judge Barak decried the genocide case against Israel as wrongly imputing “the crime of Cain to Abel.” He is referring to the irony of charging the Jewish people, the first victims of modern genocide, with the very crime likely perpetrated against it, only months earlier by Hamas.

Barak was one of only two of the seventeen judges to oppose the Court’s ruling. What is the ICJ and what did the Judges decide so far? How does international law define ‘genocidal acts’ and is the Jewish state committing them in Gaza?

What is the ICJ and its history with Israel?

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the UN’s top Court in The Hague. Commonly known as the ‘World Court’, it settles legal disputes between UN member-states, all parties to the ICJ, and issues legal advisory opinions as requested by UN bodies. Unlike the International Criminal Court (ICC), the ICJ has no lawful authority to prosecute individuals for war crimes. Rather, the court is about “state-to-state” litigation.

The ICJ has a long history with Israel/Palestine. In 2004, the Court’s non-binding opinion ruled that Israel’s West Bank barrier built during the Second Intifada was illegal and should be removed. In July this year, the ICJ delivered another advisory opinion on the legality of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories since 1967.

It came after the UN General Assembly asked the court in 2022 for an advisory opinion. Among other things, the Court held that Israeli settlements violate international law, and that Israel should pay reparations to the Palestinian people. An unprecedented fifty-two states participated in the proceedings. This was the highest level of engagement in the Court’s history.