Is the ICJ's ruling a verdict or a vindication? - opinion

Watching the ICJ’s decision last Friday in which it ordered Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide, while not committing to calling on Israel to end hostilities in Gaza, left us with more questions than answers. 

Immediately after, we were flooded with articles calling this either a total victory for Israel or proof that Israel is in fact guilty of being the monster the world so desperately wants us to be.

So which is it? Was this a verdict that Israel is committing genocide or have we been totally vindicated? As with all things in life, the answer is a little more complicated. 

While we can agree that the court not ordering Israel to cease fire before completing its objectives in Gaza is certainly better than a worst-case scenario, this is still a far cry from being acquitted of any wrongdoing. 

Israel has not been acquitted of anything by the ICJ

In fact, the rhetoric of the court, stating “some of the acts and omissions alleged by South Africa to have been committed by Israel in Gaza appear to be capable of falling within the provisions of the [Genocide] Convention,” doesn’t sound like much of a victory and any victory declared would be a hollow one.

The court, in fact, based its calls for Israel to take action to prevent genocide on the grounds that they don’t believe Israel is doing enough. To Israel’s biggest detractors, this was as good as a guilty verdict to be stamped in the history books as a fact that should be quoted until there is no more Israel to be held accountable. 

Once again, this too would be a hollow victory. This is a court case that will take years to complete, and although there may not be any genocide, a high civilian casualty rate is certainly a reasonable concern and one that should be monitored closely. However, that does not equate to an intention of genocide.

I BELIEVE the ICJ has handed us, however unintentional it may be, a public relations golden ticket that Israel desperately needs. While the ruling itself implies that Israel is not doing enough, this is the perfect opportunity to make the case for a humane Israel. 

The battle between good and evil seems as clear as day to us internally, but the same cannot be said on the international stage. We have just been given a court-ordered, international display to show step by step how Israel, as a country and a military power, has taken extreme steps in the depths of a painful and traumatic war to save countless Palestinian lives at its own expense.

Reactions to the ICJ’s provisions have only furthered the need for a shift in perspective on this. Prime Minister Netanyahu has dismissed the order as “outrageous.” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir responded with “Hague shmague.”

But Israel’s war is multi-fronted and one of the theaters of war is international opinion. So far, this is a battle we have been losing. Now is not the time for political talk to distract from the immense effort we have made to prevent the loss of civilian life.

Ben-Gvir: "Hague-shmague"

We have had to deal with our own politicians’ rhetoric being used against us on the public stage. Calls from Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to cause the mass migration of “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians, aka ethnically cleanse Gaza, are being used to dampen the sacrifice our soldiers are making every day so that we may be seen as humane at their expense. Global news outlets have, on countless occasions, twisted the definition of Amalek to mean any Palestinian. We don’t need to make life harder on ourselves than it already is. 

Now is the time to show the world that the IDF is the most humane army in the world, a defender of the only liberal democracy in the Middle East, as well as the only Jewish state. 

If Israel can provide a concrete case against the court – one that some could argue is already biased against us – and can pull off the upset of the century by being found innocent against the claims of genocide by South Africa, then we will have a very good reason to celebrate.

We must not waste this opportunity.

The writer is a third-year business entrepreneurship student and a member of the Argov Fellowship for Leadership and Diplomacy at Reichman University.