Netanyahu defies the International Court of Justice – “Nobody will stop us”
Despite proceedings at the International Court of Justice, Benjamin Netanyahu made clear Israel has no intention to relent in its genocidal attack on Gaza: “Nobody will stop us – not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anybody else.”
The South African legal team argued its caseagainst Israel’s genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague last Thursday. It was a breathtaking session of over three hours, with several exquisite, morally astute speeches, like that of Irish barrister Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh – I was awestruck at the detail and the overview. These speeches must be preserved for posterity as some of the most important in history. Their summation rang like a bell meant to shake the entire world, such as when Ní Ghrálaigh intoned, “The world should be absolutely outraged… There is no safe space in Gaza and the world should be ashamed”.
But Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is not ashamed. If he is outraged at anything, it is about the “hypocritical onslaught at The Hague against the state of the Jews.”
On Saturday, in a nine-minute live speech (in Hebrew) on Israeli Channel 14, Netanyahu once again evoked the “war of the sons of light against the sons of darkness,” the same imagery that he used back in October. He also directly defied the ICJ: “Nobody will stop us – not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anybody else.”
It requires sheer gall to refer like this to the International Court of Justice, the highest legal authority of the UN, which represents the highest international consensus on international law. To suggest that its rulings will have no consequence is blatantly offensive. In addition, Netanyahu also lied in his speech, claiming that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Hamas the “new Nazis” when in fact it was Netanyahu himself who said that.
But Netanyahu doesn’t care, not about the truth nor about tarnishing the ICJ. He was speaking in Hebrew to his crowd. And while his scandalous dismissal of the ICJ made headlines, Netanyahu’s speech included other chilling warnings that Israel has no plans to relent in its genocidal attack.
In fact, the conclusion of his speech, which has not been widely reported on, included yet another biblical reference that subtly hints at divine revenge on Israel’s enemies, similar to his infamous Amalek reference (where that ancient nation was to be eradicated down to babies and animals).
“As it is said in the week’s bible episode,” Netanyahu said, “Then they will live in their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob. They will live there in safety and will build houses and plant vineyards.”
The quote is from Ezekiel 28:25, 26. On its face, it seems benign, but the quote continues. Netanyahu omitted the full quote in his speech, but those who know their bible, like the religious-nationalist base that Netanyahu heavily relies upon, will understand the message. The quote continues:
“They will live in safety when I inflict punishment on all their neighbors who maligned them. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God.”
After the biblical citation, Netanyahu ended the speech by saying: “Together we will fight, and together, with the help of God, we will win.”
We should take these words very seriously. This is Israel’s prime minister. And yet, some are still trying to explain away these repeated calls for genocide as exceptions. Incredibly, even liberal outlets like Haaretz are counseling that Israel’s best defense at the ICJ would be for Netanyahu to fire the extremist ministers who utter such things – when he is saying these things all the time!
And then there is Fania Oz-Salzberger, Amos Oz’s daughter, who suggested that these genocidal calls are all just examples of “wild freedom of speech,” and “loudmouths crying Genocide and Amalek” who are “not aware of the profound dissonance, the huge damage, the justified outrage.” In line with Haaretz and the New York Times, she suggests it’s just about bad apples: “Only a small minority wants actual genocide in Gaza and are morally crippled enough to carry it through: the extreme national-religious right.” And “No, Israel is not conducting genocide… But its ongoing rant about ‘flattening Gaza’ is no longer a quaint side effect of our argumentative heritage.”
This is absurd – Oz-Salzberger is attempting to outdo her father when it comes to peddling hasbara.
An overwhelming majority of the Israeli population supports the genocide, they just call it something else, like self-defense. Most of them think too little firepower is being used, and most of them support the “voluntary emigration” plan (ethnic cleansing if one is in doubt).
All of these words, both Netanyahu’s as well as those of liberal propagandists, are part of the same genocidal reality. Israel is committing genocide, and the world has a responsibility to protect the Palestinians. Netanyahu has announced he will stop at nothing, even if the highest court in the world says he must. So we must stand with the Palestinians, against this Israeli axis of evil.
H/t Tali Shapiro, Steffen Groth
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