Eire has formally joined South Africa’s genocide case in opposition to Israel, according to a statement on Tuesday from the Worldwide Courtroom 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 Courtroom, filed within the Registry of the Courtroom a declaration of intervention within the case regarding Software of the Conference on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide within the Gaza Strip,” the court docket stated in an announcement 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 Courtroom.”
In an preliminary ruling in January 2024, the court ordered Israel to restrain its attacks in Gaza, and in Could it ordered the nation to right away 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 Overseas Affairs confirmed the submitting on Tuesday. “It can be crucial for the Courtroom, in its consideration of any multilateral conference, to know how different events to that conference interpret and apply it,” it stated in an announcement.
The submitting was lengthy anticipated. Final month, the federal government accredited a plan to file its argument within the case, with Micheál Martin, the deputy prime minister and minister for overseas affairs, saying that it might be filed in The Hague, the place the court docket is predicated, inside weeks.
“There was a collective punishment of the Palestinian individuals by the intent and affect of army actions of Israel in Gaza, leaving 44,000 useless and hundreds of thousands 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.
Consultants say the court docket shouldn’t 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 a detailed with the 1998 Good Friday Settlement.
Final month, Israel introduced it was closing its embassy in Dublin, citing what it stated had 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.