This is a series, I am in the world. I'm John Bachelor. Malcolm online,

conference of presidents major American Jewish organizations, my colleague and

friend and co-host, and we attend immediately to the International Court of Justice.

I.C.J. is the acronym.

We welcome Natasha Haustorf, an attorney based in London, most recently commenting for everyone on the ICJ and its conduct in condemning and castigating and blaming during the Gaza conflict.

Natasha, a very good evening to you.

We begin with, what is the ICJ because it has not been in the news recently the ICC was in the news recently how

is it different from the ICC what is it hoped to achieve in these allegations good evening

to you good evening thank John. It's a real

pleasure to be with you. I appreciate it can sometimes be confusing. These are both

courts that are seated in the Hague in the Netherlands but they are very different

both in terms of the ambit and also their founding the international court of

justice the ICJ is the top court at the United Nations and it deals with two parallel mechanisms, but they both concern states and the obligations of states. The first of its mechanisms

is to deal with disputes arising bilaterally between states, and that we see in the context of South Africa's

applications against Israel and its allegation of the crime of genocide against the state of Israel.

The other mechanism which also involves law fair initiatives

unfortunately against the state of Israel is the ICJ providing what are called advisory opinions.

Now those are not legally binding but we saw the effect of the 2004 wall opinion against Israel vis-à-vis Israel's security barrier.

That was built to stem the tide of suicide bombings that were ravaging the civilian community of Israel in the course of the

Intifada.

That 2004 wall opinion by the court has been seen as authoritative and has done enormous damage unfortunately to Israel's

standing in the international community and also its ability to defend itself

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