BREAKING: ICJ orders Israel to IMMEDIATELY cease operations in Rafah!

Right, so enormous news has literally just broken this afternoon as the International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to cease all military actions in Rafah and to leave the enclave immediately after South Africa earlier this month brought to the attention of the ICJ once more the state of affairs and the actions of the Israeli forces in Gaza, making this the third time now that preliminary orders have been handed down to Israeli in order to alleviate the humanitarian crisis that they have created in Gaza, as well as seeking to attempt to rein in the death toll, which keeps growing ever higher on a daily basis.
Although more provisional orders had been handed down by the ICJ against Israeli in March, it was felt that these did not now fully address the situation in Gaza now and that the conditions for a new emergency order had now been met.
Right so this is breaking news, literally it broke some 20 minutes ago at time of writing and there was no way frankly I wasn’t going to say something on this, because it’s a big step up from the International Court of Justice here, they have effectively ordered a ceasefire as far as Rafah is concerned, the sheer number of people stuck there and the Israeli army showing no signs of preparedness to back off meaningfully meant a new order to be instigated.
On the 10th May, South Africa submitted the following three requests for additional provisional orders to the ICJ:
‘The State of Israel shall immediately withdraw and cease its military offensive in the Rafah Governorate.
The State of Israel shall immediately take all effective measures to ensure and facilitate the unimpeded access to Gaza of United Nations and other officials engaged in the provision of humanitarian aid and assistance to the population of Gaza, as well as fact-finding missions, internationally mandated bodies or officials, investigators, and journalists, in order to assess and record conditions on the ground in Gaza and enable the effective preservation and retention of evidence, and shall ensure that its military does not act to prevent such access, provision, preservation or retention.
The State of Israel shall submit an open report to the Court: (a) on all measures taken to give effect to these provisional measures within one week as from the date of this Order; and (b) on all measures taken to give effect to all previous provisional measures indicated by the Court within one month as from the date of this Order.”’
This afternoon, the ICJ returned it’s verdict:
‘(1) By thirteen votes to two, Reaffirms the provisional measures indicated in its Orders of 26 January 2024 and 28 March 2024, which should be immediately and effectively implemented.
(2) Indicates the following provisional measures: The State of Israel shall, in conformity with its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and in view of the worsening conditions of life faced by civilians in the Rafah Governorate: (a) By thirteen votes to two, Immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(b) By thirteen votes to two, Maintain open the Rafah crossing for unhindered provision at scale of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance;
(c) By thirteen votes to two, Take effective measures to ensure the unimpeded access to the Gaza Strip of any commission of inquiry, fact-finding mission or other investigative body mandated by competent organs of the United Nations to investigate allegations of genocide;
(3) By thirteen votes to two, Decides that the State of Israel shall submit a report to the Court on all measures taken to give effect to this Order, within one month as from the date of this Order.’
All measures passed by thirteen votes to two, so a thumping majority of the ICJ judges, the two dissenters being the Israeli representative judge Barak and as usual the Ugandan ICJ judge and now vice-President Sebutinde.
The 13 judges backed an agreement that a red line had been crossed in Rafah and that the situation was exceptionally dire there and with 800,000 displaced people at least in Rafah now, the numbers there always seemingly fluctuating, but certainly the majority of the surviving population of the Gaza Strip, and the President of the ICJ, the Lebanese judge, Nawaf Salam reportedly saying that he does not believe Israel when they claim to by providing safety and humanitarian access, stating that he had seen no evidence of that.
As such the order being handed down is a strong one and a very welcome one. Israel must immediately stop its offensive and military operations in Rafah and withdraw it’s troops. Border crossings must be reopened as soon as possible to get humanitarian aid in and of course this is particularly relevant to Rafah since Israel took control of the Rafah Border Crossing and closed it, stopping all aid getting in. They’ve now been ordered to reopen it, specifically the Rafah crossing in the ICJ ruling and to keep it open and also that UN observers can get in and investigate before evidence of possible war crimes is lost, so the UN are now going in to Rafah it seems as Israel are ordered out of it.
There’s no wiggle room for Israel here now. They have in no uncertain terms been told to get out of Rafah, open the border crossings to let aid in and allow fact finding missions in. It very much feels like we’re in do it or else territory now and you just get the feeling Netanyahu will be sitting there saying or else what? To this ruling, but actually the word coming from Al Jazeera in the immediacy of this ruling is to convene an emergency meeting, but already the far right of Netanyahu’s coalition are gobbing off, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich having been quoted by Al-Jazeera as having said:
‘…that those who demand that the state of Israel stop the war, demand that it decree itself to cease to exist. “We will not agree to that,” he said.
He added: “We continue to fight for ourselves and for the entire free world. History will judge who today stood by the Nazis of Hamas and ISIS.”’
Such is Netanyahu’s problem. With insane voices like that who will never accept this ruling at all, he either risks losing them, or losing the likes of Benny Gantz and his National Unity Party, who have given Netanyahu 3 weeks to come up for a plan for Gaza for after the war or they are pulling out of the coalition. Everything the ICJ orders in order to bring about an end to the atrocity, Netanyahu likely only sees as an end to his government, That’s the problem and he deserves to be in the mire he’s in.
South Africa are vindicated once again, once more the lone voice in the world standing against apartheid and standing up for the rule of international humanitarian law. Tenacity and perseverance is paying off and Israel are more and more being seen for being a rogue pariah state for their actions along with all of those determined to carry on supporting them.
Hamas have welcomed the news reportedly as well, although they would have preferred Israel to have been told to get out of Gaza completely, rather than just Rafah, but at least for the majority of people there, there is now a chink of hope.
What of Genocide Joe in all of this too? This order from the ICJ is binding, the US are signed up to the ICJ of course, so to still side with Israel now assuming Israel don’t budge, a move I to be honest am expecting, then that would be a war crime, no ifs or buts at that point. That said, if reports regarding Biden’s stance on Rafah and that Israel should not go in are true, then he really ought to at this point to do the right thing, but since when has doing the right thing ever stopped him so far? At this moment in time, nothing concrete has come out. No doubt this will be followed up on as more reaction come out, but this is huge news, great news, that needs to stand.
Meanwhile as we wait and see what Biden’s view of the ICJ ruling is going to be, he’s already attacked the ICC, International Criminal Court, also at the Hague, for requesting arrest warrants for Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant, but given the US is not involved in the ICC he really ought to just butt out of that one and know his own place. Get the details of that story in the video recommendation here and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.