Today South Africa the nation of Nelson Mandela hauled the state of Israel before the Hague

to charge it with committing the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people

specifically charging it with wanton, shameless, and indeed

undisguised violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of a crime of genocide of 1948 to which Israel and its key allies are

signatories. The aim, given it can take years for the court to adjudicate on a case of this

type to secure provisional measures which

legally decree above all else that Israel must cease its military operations in

Gaza and allow its people to receive humanitarian aid.

Now, you may understandably be cynical about the prospects of such an outcome.

Surely Israel would simply ignore the ICJ as it has done before when the court has ruled against it.

But if Israel is found to be committing genocide, that would then have huge implications

for the states which arm and back Israel.

And without their support, Israel's genocide

against the Palestinians would not be possible.

Now, this case brought before the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the United Nations, has already begun with a meticulously evidence and devastatingly argued 84-page document. Today, a team of esteemed lawyers, largely themselves South African alongside

an Irish and British colleague, delivered oral arguments covering genocidal acts,

genocidal intent, jurisdiction, the rights requiring

protection, urgency and irreparable harm, and the provisional measures that are sought.

Now, this was a moment of history.

For so many reasons.

South Africa is a victim of the historic crime of apartheid and it therefore has assumed a moral responsibility

that given its own people struggled at such cost and sacrifice to free themselves from their own prison.

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