Genocide Under Our Watch

The situation in Palestine is beyond catastrophic. The death toll and destruction is colossal and continues to rise.The siege by Israel of Gaza, has caused the deaths of over 11,000 people with half of them children. According to the World Health Organisation, on average,a child is killed every 10 minutes in Gaza.

TheUN Secretary General warned that "Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It's a living hell for everyone else". The level of brutality and disregard for human life is shocking and staggering. Hospitals, schools,churches and mosques are carpet-bombed.

Buildings razed to the ground, infra structure completely destroyed. Bakeries, water pipes and sewage, electricity networks all destroyed. Thousands of bodies remain trapped under rubble, many hundreds held illegally in detention, almost30 000 people have been injured and more than 1.6 million people have been displaced.

Health professionals have died in their hundreds. Journalists and relief aid workers have been killed. Close to home, Dr Ahmad Abbasi, head of The Gift of theGivers operations in Gaza was killed on 16 November, together with his brother, after they returned from morning prayer. Israel's order to shut off water, food, fuel, medical supplies and other basic human necessities to thePalestinians is a gross violation of rules of war.

New born babies who need to be placed in incubators are dying as there is no fuel to run the generators. The intentional starvation of the people of Palestine, refusal to allow them access to medical treatment are also war crimes.

The list of atrocities runs long and deep. There is little doubt that this amounts to ethnic cleansing. Even during the darkest hours of apartheid in SouthAfrica, there was not this level of evil against humanity.

The failure and/ or refusal by the US and certain other western countries to stop the brutality and call for an immediate ceasefire, only emboldens Israel, who continues to act with impunity. A number of constitutional law, international law and human rights law experts have raised the alarm that Israel's actions against Palestinians are war crimes and that it is genocide. There is a growing call amongst lawyers across the globe to take a stand against the atrocities being perpetrated by Israel.

A formal complaint has already been filed to the ICC in the Hague by attorneys inSA. Gilles Devers, a French lawyer is the leading counsel at the ICC has taken up the cause on behalf of the Palestinian people and he has over 500 lawyers as part of his contingent, with SA also included as part of his team of lawyers.

TheSouth African government, along with a number of countries who are all parties to the Rome Statute, submitted a joint referral of the situation in Palestine to the International Criminal Court (ICC). On 17 November 2023, the ambassador in the Hague His Excellency Mr Vusi Madonsela, personally delivered the referral to Office of the Prosecutor in the Hague. Hopefully peaceful change will prevail.

Yours in humanity

Fawzia Khan