(30 Dec 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ramallah, West Bank - 30 December 2023
1. Wide of Mustafa Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mustafa Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative:
"We appreciate and we support the decision of the South African government to take the case of genocide against Palestinian people in Gaza to the International Court of justice. Israel is committing three terrible war crimes against the people in Gaza, the war crime of genocide, the war crime of collective punishment and the war crime of ethnic cleansing, and it is high time to hold Israel responsible and accountable in front of the international community, Israel cannot conduct genocide against the Palestinian people killing and injuring more than 80,000 Palestinians in less than three months and not be accountable to international law."
3. Barghouti in his office
STORYLINE:
Palestinian National Initiative political party leader Mustafa Barghouti on Saturday welcomed a move by South Africa to launch legal action in the UN's top court accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
According to South Africa’s submission to the International Court of Justice, “acts and omissions by Israel...are genocidal in character” as they are committed with the intent “to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.”
The submission also asked the Hague-based court to issue an interim order for Israel to immediately suspend its military operations in Gaza.
Speaking in the West Bank, Barghouti told The Associated Press that Israel was "committing three terrible war crimes against the people in Gaza" and said it should be held "accountable to international law."
Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the government “rejected with disgust” South Africa's allegations and called it 'blood libel."
The statement said the case has no legal or factual basis and constitutes a “vile exploitation and cheapening” of the court.
Israel also accused South Africa of cooperating with Hamas, which it accused of trying to commit genocide in its Oct. 7 cross-border attack that triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
South Africa can bring the case under the Genocide Convention because both it and Israel are signatories to the convention.
South Africa also asked the court to issue an interim order for Israel to immediately suspend its military operations in Gaza.
A hearing into that request is likely in the coming days or weeks.
The case, if it goes ahead, will take years, but an interim order could be issued within weeks.
AP video by Imad Isseid
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