France refuses support for ICJ case accusing Israel of genocide

France rejects a case against Israel at the ICJ that accuses the country of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

France declared on Wednesday that it will not back a case against Israel at the United Nations’ top court, which accuses the country of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

“Accusing the Jewish state of genocide crosses a moral threshold. The notion of genocide cannot be exploited for political ends,” stated Foreign Minister Sejourne.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) emergency case was initiated by South Africa, arguing that Israel violates the U.N. Genocide Convention signed in 1948, following the Holocaust. The case seeks to “immediately” halt Israel’s military operations in the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza.

Since the unprecedented Oct 7 attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, resulting in approximately 1,140 casualties, Gaza has experienced ongoing conflict. The Hamas-run territory’s health ministry reports at least 24,448 Palestinians, with over 70% being women, young children, and adolescents, killed in subsequent Israeli bombardments and ground assaults.

Israel and the United States have rejected the ICJ case as groundless. U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller dismissed the South African case as “unfounded,” claiming it was those attacking Israel who openly called for its annihilation.

Germany has strongly rejected South Africa’s accusations against Israel, labeling it a “political instrumentalization” of the UN Genocide Convention with “no basis in fact.” Namibia, a former German colony, expressed deep concern over Germany’s stance, criticizing its “inability to draw lessons from its horrific history.”

Germany was previously responsible for the massacres of over 70,000 Indigenous Herero and Nama people in Namibia between 1904 and 1908, an event widely considered the first genocide of the 20th century by historians.

Source: AFP