29 May 2024; MEMO: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) yesterday announced that it had received a request from Mexico to join the genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel due to the war on the Gaza Strip.
According to the court’s statement, Mexico has invoked Article 63 of the ICJ statute and submitted a declaration of intervention in the case concerning the Application of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Mexico indicated its desire “to provide its view on the potential construction of the content of the provisions of the Convention relevant to this case.”
At the end of December 2023, South Africa filed a lawsuit against Israel before the ICJ on the grounds that it had violated the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Several countries later submitted requests to join the case, including Turkiye, Libya, Nicaragua and Colombia.
The case was heard in January and, in an interim ruling, the World Court ordered Israel to ensure no genocidal actions are carried out by its army, and no genocidal speeches are made by its officials, while ensuring the delivery of aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
South Africa returned to the ICJ this month calling for an urgent ruling to stop Israel’s planned assault on Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah, with the court calling on Israel to “immediately halt” its Rafah offensive. However, since the ruling last week. Israel has carried out numerous massacres, including by targeting displacement camps in Rafah, trapping Palestinians who were subsequently burnt to death.
