Eire has formally joined South Africa’s genocide case towards Israel, according to a statement on Tuesday from the Worldwide Court docket of Justice.
The submitting, made on Monday, comes months after Ireland announced plans to intervene within the case earlier than the United Nations’ highest judicial body.
“Eire, invoking Article 63 of the Statute of the Court docket, filed within the Registry of the Court docket a declaration of intervention within the case regarding Utility of the Conference on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide within the Gaza Strip,” the court docket stated in a press release on Tuesday.
South Africa brought its case to the I.C.J. in December 2023, accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel has strongly rejected the allegation, describing South Africa’s submitting as a “despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the Court docket.”
In an preliminary ruling in January 2024, the court ordered Israel to restrain its attacks in Gaza, and in Might it ordered the nation to instantly halt its military offensive within the metropolis of Rafah, in southern Gaza.
The United Nations permits international locations to “intervene” in proceedings if they’re events to the United Nations’ 1948 Genocide Conference.
A spokesperson for Eire’s Division of International Affairs confirmed the submitting on Tuesday. “It will be significant for the Court docket, in its consideration of any multilateral conference, to grasp how different events to that conference interpret and apply it,” it stated in a press release.
The submitting was lengthy anticipated. Final month, the federal government permitted a plan to file its argument within the case, with Micheál Martin, the deputy prime minister and minister for international affairs, saying that it might be filed in The Hague, the place the court docket relies, inside weeks.
“There was a collective punishment of the Palestinian individuals by the intent and affect of navy actions of Israel in Gaza, leaving 44,000 useless and tens of millions of civilians displaced,” Mr. Martin stated in December, including that Eire would ask the court docket to broaden its interpretation of what constitutes the fee of genocide by a state.
“We’re involved {that a} very slim interpretation of what constitutes genocide results in a tradition of impunity wherein the safety of civilians is minimized,” he added.
Specialists say the court docket will not be anticipated to rule on the genocide cost for years.
The choice to intervene within the case displays Ireland’s longstanding support for Palestinian civilians, rooted partly in a shared historical past of British colonialism and in Eire’s personal expertise with a seemingly intractable sectarian battle — The Troubles, which got here to an in depth with the 1998 Good Friday Settlement.
Final month, Israel introduced it was closing its embassy in Dublin, citing what it stated have been “the intense anti-Israel insurance policies of the Irish authorities.” Israeli officers stated the motion didn’t imply that Israel was severing diplomatic relations with Eire.
