It’s very fitting that South Africa, a former apartheid state, is the country that recently filed charges against Israel in the International Court of Justice.

South Africa asserts that Israel is in violation of the Geneva Convention. From the 84-page document‘s Introduction:
The acts and omissions by Israel complained of by South Africa are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group, that being the part of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip (‘Palestinians in Gaza’). The acts in question include killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, and inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. The acts are all attributable to Israel, which has failed to prevent genocide and is committing genocide in manifest violation of the Genocide Convention, and which has also violated and is continuing to violate its other fundamental obligations under the Genocide Convention, including by failing to prevent or punish the direct and public incitement to genocide by senior Israeli officials and others.

I have not read the entire document (not even close), but here is video of British newspaper columnist, Owen Jones, breaking down the contents. Confession: it was difficult getting through the entire video due to the sheer volume of horrifying details about Israel’s genocidal campaign, but it felt important to bear witness to what’s happening in my name. (Note: the video link also allows you to “show transcript” if you’d rather read or want to read along. OR, you can watch with subtitles via Twitter)

This from the end of Owen Jones’s video (~ 32:00 mark):
This is why South Africa’s case is so important. A ruling by the court could take years but we don’t have years so South Africa has asked for something else as well for the court to order in the meantime: for Israel to cease its operations in Gaza, to desist from the forced displacement of Palestinians, and allow Gazans to get access to humanitarian aid. That would mean foreign States who then facilitate Israel’s current action would find themselves criminally liable.

Predictably, White House National Security Council spokesperson, John Kirby, referred to the filing as “meritless, counterproductive, and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.” (Um, the filing contains 574 footnotes, not to mention that the entire world is watching this genocide!)

I haven’t watched it yet, but Owen Jones made another video on South Africa’s filing, this one with human rights lawyer Daniel Machover. (Fun fact: In 1967, after Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Daniel Machover’s father, who was born to a Jewish family in Tel Aviv, plus 11 others, signed this statement:

If only Israel had aligned itself with that statement which saw far into the country’s future.

As for South Africa’s filing, since the U.S. is the bully of the planet, I’m not holding my breath. But I will watch the video with Daniel Machover and see what he thinks could happen. Either way, we should all be grateful to South Africa for stepping up in this moment.  It’s increasingly difficult to maintain my civility when placing calls to Biden and my so-called representatives who continue to insist Israel is merely defending itself (via mass starvation?!), and I would love for all of them to someday be held complicit in this genocide. A woman can dream, right?

No matter what happens, I remain in steadfast support of a Free Palestine.