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Turkiye joins South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at ICJ
Ankara will submit a formal request to the International Court of Justice to join the case.
A person stands inside a building, damaged in an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 3, 2024. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan declared that Turkiye will join in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
“Upon completion of the legal text of our work, we will submit the declaration of official intervention before the ICJ with the objective of implementing this political decision,” Fidan said at a joint news conference with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
“Turkiye will continue to support the Palestinian people in all circumstances,” he said.
Turkiye provided documents for the case at ICJ
The ICJ has ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians after South Africa accused Israel of state-led genocide in Gaza.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in January that Turkiye was providing documents for the case at the top United Nations court, also known as the World Court.
Turkiye will join Colombia in formally requesting to join the case against Israel. Last month, the South American country called on the ICJ to allow it to join the case and to ensure “the safety and, indeed, the very existence of the Palestinian people”.
The ICJ may allow states to intervene in cases and give their views.
Israel says the allegations are without foundations
Israel and its Western allies have described South Africa’s allegations as baseless. A final ruling in the case could take years.
In a separate case on Tuesday, the ICJ ruled against issuing emergency measures over German arms sales to Israel as requested by Nicaragua, which had argued that there was a serious risk of genocide in Gaza during Israel’s assault. Germany has denied the accusations.
In the emergency measures issued in March, judges at the ICJ also ordered Israel to take all necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies arrive without delay to the Palestinian population in Gaza as a famine loomed in some parts of the territory.
Crippling food shortages resulted from Israel severely restricting supplies of humanitarian aid and pressing on with its military assault, which began nearly seven months ago.
Rights groups and officials including USAID said famine is already happening in northern Gaza.
The war has so far killed at least 34,568 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian authorities. More than 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced, and entire neighbourhoods have been levelled in Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion.
In Hamas’s October 7 attacks on southern Israel, 1,139 people were killed and about 250 were taken captive.
