'Israel' scrambles its world embassies to shutdown ICJ genocide case
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The Israeli foreign ministry issued Telegram broadcast to the entity's foreign missions to lobby countries they operate in to convince them to reject the ICJ genocide lawsuit before the January 11 session.
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Members of the jury sit in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands in 2015 (AFP)
The Israeli occupation entity went on full diplomatic alert mode following South Africa's filing of a genocide case against it at the International Court of Justice earlier this week.
South Africa's submission to the Hague-based court reads that the Israeli occupation forces' operations "are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial, and ethnical group."
"The conduct of Israel… in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, is in violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention," the application further reads.
Read more: UN alarmed by Israeli calls for forced displacement of Palestinians
According to Walla!, the regime's foreign ministry issued instructions via Telegram to dozens of its embassies worldwide to "convince as many countries" to publicly announce a rejection of South Africa's ICJ lawsuit.
Meanwhile, the foreign ministry also made contact with several countries to push them to release statements "acknowledging that Israel is attempting to reduce harm to civilians in Gaza," the media outlet added.
Israeli embassies have been informed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also expected to send a letter with a similar message to his counterparts in dozens of countries in the world in the coming days.
This comes as the number of martyrs in Gaza killed by the ongoing Israel war has surpassed 22,000 with over 60,000 reported injured, with the majority of martyrs being from children and women.
Additionally, a recent report by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) revealed that "Israel's" use of starvation as a weapon of war - having enforced a complete blockade on Gaza since day one of the war - has resulted in making Gaza become the center of 80% of people experiencing famine worldwide, with 577,000 out of 706,000 people experiencing "catastrophic" or "famine" levels of hunger globally being Palestinians in the Strip.
Read more: 83% of Israelis support ethnic cleansing of Gazans: Survey
Israeli media pointed out that the entity's plan is to garner as much public support as possible before the ICJ hearing, which will take place toward the end of next week, with aims to increase the chance that the judges of the tribunal in The Hague will outright reject South Africa's demand to issue a restraining order, which will call for an immediate ceasefire.
"The court's decision has significant potential consequences on the bilateral, multilateral, security, economic, political level, in the practical world and beyond the legal aspect," the Telegram broadcast read, as per Israeli media, explaining that this was considered by the Foreign Ministry as an "action plan."
The entity's "strategic goal" is to push The Hague to reject the request for injunctions, not to rule that the occupation is committing genocide in Gaza, and to recognize that "Israel" is waging "complex warfare under the rules of international humanitarian law" in Gaza.
Top Israeli officials in the ministry detailed that, under that treaty signed by the entity, genocide is also defined as "the creation of conditions that do not allow the survival of the population together with the intent to destroy it." In that context, they urged their embassy teams to stress the "critical" point that the entity is making "efforts to reduce the damage to the population as well as increasing humanitarian aid."
The United States was the first party to comment on South Africa's measure on Wednesday dismissing claims against its ally, which comes in-line with the US policy of opposing the end of the brutal war on Gaza, which saw Washington shooting down multiple UNSC resolutions calling for a ceasefire.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called the submission "meritless, counterproductive, and completely without any basis whatsoever." Meanwhile, the US State Department said that Washington is “not seeing any acts that constitute genocide”.
According to the Israeli media reports, the entity's ambassadors were asked to act immediately to push countries they are operating in to publish public statements "of the highest political and professional level" by the time of the hearing in The Hague on January 11.
Statements made by mentioned countries must publically state that they "strongly reject and express disgust at the absurd accusation and the case opened in The Hague against Israel," the Telegram message read.
"It must be stated that the country recognizes Israel's humanitarian efforts towards the civilian population in Gaza, and recognizes Israel's efforts to reduce the damage to the civilian population."
