Writer Gideon Levy begins his article regarding what transpired in the sessions of the International Court of Justice in The Hague about the current war on Gaza with questions and similarly concludes with more queries, cautioning against the Israeli contradiction between words and actions.
Levy starts his article in Haaretz with probing questions, “If we assume that Israel’s position in The Hague is correct and just, and that Israel has not committed any genocide or anything close to that, then what happened? What do we call the mass killing that continues to this moment, indiscriminate and unrestrained, on a scale that is difficult to imagine?”
He continues, “What shall we name the dying children in hospitals, some of whom no longer have anyone left in the world, and the elderly civilian civilians fleeing to save their lives from the constant threat of bombs everywhere? Will a legal definition change their fate?”
After posing these questions, Levy suggests that Israel will breathe a sigh of relief if the court dismisses the charge as if our conscience could be clean because The Hague says this was not genocide. According to the writer, we will then be the most ethical in the world.
Levy adds, with amazement, how the Israeli media and social networks admired and praised the Israeli legal team in The Hague, almost completely ignoring South Africa’s stance, presented in better English, more firmly grounded in the facts and less in propaganda. This caused Levy to assert that the Israeli media in this war has reached its lowest point.
Even though we speak of a nation on trial for the gravest violations in international law, Levy notes that the Israeli lawyers only presented the usual arguments, “Some of which are, of course, just, but some are bitterly laughable,” like holding the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) solely responsible for the situation in Gaza, as if our team is mocking the intelligence of the court’s judges, he expresses.
The writer wonders at the statements of Malcolm Shaw, the head of the Israeli defense team, that “Israel’s actions are proportionate and only target armed forces,” highlighting the number of children killed and questioning how this destruction can be seen as proportionate. Is it comparable to Hiroshima?
Levy questions attorney Galit Distel Atbaryan’s statement that “the Israeli Defense Forces will move hospitals to a safer place.” Will the al-Shifa hospital be relocated to Seba? And Al-Rantisi to Soroka? What are the safe places in Gaza this attorney speaks of, and which hospitals will the Israeli army be moving?
Levy concludes with the following questions, “Are we satisfied with the defense’s arguments? Will we rest easy with what the situation will be after The Hague, and will we feel reassured about our state of affairs after Gaza?”
