MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile joins South Africa's ICJ case against Israel

Chile should not remain indifferent in the face of what is going on in Gaza, Boric argued

The Chilean Government of President Gabriel Boric Font announced Friday that the South American country had joined South Africa's filing before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel for its alleged breach of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide against the Palestinian community.

Chile's Ambassador before The Netherlands Jaime Moscoso submitted the South American country's documents at The Hague, where the ICJ is headquartered.

“The international community must do everything in our power to stop the massacre in Gaza. We cannot be indifferent,” Boric wrote on X, thus following up on his pledge to endorse South Africa's legal action filed in December 2023. Boric had also adhered to the ICJ's declaration that Israel was an occupying power in Gaza where an apartheid system was set in place. Boric is a known defender of the Palestinian cause, despite falling short of breaking up diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv.

According to the ICJ, ”Chile, invoking Article 63 of the ICJ Statute, filed a declaration of intervention in the case concerning the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (ICCPR) in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel).“ Article 63 grants any State the right to participate in a proceeding, making its outcome binding to the petitioner.

Israel is conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a surprise attack by the Islamic terrorist group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, killing over 1,000 civilians and taking some 200 others hostage. Tel Aviv's actions are said to have resulted in over 41,000 deaths.

”The national intervention argues that the International Court of Justice (ICJ), should give special importance to the content of the statements of some high-level Israeli public officials, who have made calls to kill all the people living in Gaza or to ignore their civilian status,“ the Chilean Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

”The Government of Chile expresses its confidence and support in the work of the ICJ in matters of international law, as well as in its interpretation and qualification of the obligations contained in the aforementioned Convention,“ it added.

Chile's Palestinian community of nearly 500,000 people is one of the largest outside the Arab world.

In January, the ICJ said Israel must do everything possible to ensure the supply of the Palestinian population and avoid civilian casualties, and in March it issued another ruling along the same lines after the situation of the civilian population in Gaza was said to be approaching famine. On Feb. 12, South Africa filed an ”urgent petition” with the Court over Israel's decision to conduct an offensive in the Gazan city of Rafah. On May 24, the ICJ ordered Israel to halt its military offensive there. ICJ Prosecutors have requested arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and War Minister Yoav Galant.

Other countries endorsing South Africa's case are Nicaragua, Colombia, Libya, Mexico, Turkey, Spain, and Palestine.