Trudeau government silent on genocide allegations against Israel at UN court

OTTAWA—The federal government is so far staying out of the latest political flashpoint surrounding the war in Gaza, as it remains silent on a contentious accusation being heard this week at the UN’s International Court of Justice that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians . The United States and Israel were quick to reject the allegation — which South Africa filed at the ICJ in late December — as groundless and insulting, while other countries have expressed support for the claim, including Turkey, a NATO ally and staunch critic of Israel’s ongoing airstrikes and ground attacks in response to the Hamas atrocities launched from the Gaza Strip on Oct.

7. While Canada's stance on the conflict has evolved from calls to respect international law to the endorsement last month of the United Nations' call for a ceasefire, Ottawa has not taken a public position on the genocide allegations at the ICJ. Spokespeople for Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly passed questions about South Africa's case to civil servants in her department, who responded that “Canada is aware of South Africa’s filing and is following the situation closely.” That includes hearings at the ICJ in The Hague, Netherlands on Thursday and Friday, when South Africa is expected to argue for an interim order on Israel to "immediately halt all military attacks" that allegedly breach the international Genocide Convention.

That agreement — formally called the of 1948 — was created after the Nazi slaughter of millions of Jews in the Holocaust during the Second World War, and was designed to stop the "odious scourge" of genocide in the future. On Tuesday, the opposition New Democrats' foreign affairs critic, Edmonton MP Heather McPherson, urged the government to refrain from opposing South Africa's case.

In a letter to Joly, which the NDP shared with the Star, McPherson also called on the Liberal government to support whatever decision comes out of the ICJ on the genocide allegations against Israel, noting that the French ambassador to the UN has said his country will support whatever outcome the case produces.

"This is a pivotal moment for Canadian foreign policy," McPherson wrote. "The choices that you will make in the next weeks will show whether Canada stands for justice for all people, or whether we pick and choose whose rights matter." The federal Greens have also called on Ottawa to support whatever decision the ICJ makes, while Liberal MP Salma Zahid published a statement on social media Tuesday that urged the government to "support" South Africa's genocide application against Israel, which she said "raises many serious issues around the humanitarian crisis, the conduct of the conflict, and the suffering that is being experienced by innocent Palestinians, including women and children." Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong was not available for an interview on the subject, his office said.

To Michael Byers, the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia, there is no reason for Ottawa to wade into such a delicate legal drama. "There's a lot more sensitivity concerning allegations of genocide made against that particular country," Byers said, referring to how the state of Israel was created "because of a genocide" against Jews during the Second World War.

Byers added there is no obligation on Canada to intervene in this case, as it has in , in which Gambia is alleging Myanmar is committing genocide against ethnic Rohingya. "There's nothing really that Canada or any other country could add as an intervener. So it's just fine to sit this one out and let the court deal with the arguments put before them," he said.

While Byers declined to pronounce on the merits of South Africa's case, he has noted before that the most difficult part of genocide claims is to establish the required "intent" that exists to — as the convention says — destroy members of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group "in whole or in part." This can be done through killing group members, causing "serious bodily or mental harm," or "deliberately inflicting ...

conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction," the convention says. In its 84 page filing with the court, South Africa argues Israel's actions in Gaza — including heavy bombing of densely populated areas; the resulting deaths of thousands of children, as reported by the Hamas run health ministry; the alleged failure to provide essential food, water and other supplies to civilians in the occupied territory; and the destruction of religious and cultural sites — carry the "specific intent" to destroy Gazan Palestinians.

"Israel has reduced and is continuing to reduce Gaza to rubble, killing, harming and destroying its people, and creating conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction as a group," the filing says. To support that claim, South Africa quotes a number of Israeli politicians, including President Isaac Herzog's statement in October that "an entire nation out there is responsible" for the Hamas atrocities of Oct.

7, in which more than 1,100 people were killed in Israel. Israel has flatly rebuffed all claims of genocide during the current war with Hamas, and a government spokesperson described South Africa's filing at the ICJ as "absurd blood libel." Throughout the conflict, Israel has said it is defending itself and aiming to eliminate the terrorist threat posed by Hamas, an that has governed the Gaza Strip since 2008 and has called for the destruction of Israel.

Canada, the U.S. and European countries consider it a terrorist organization. Writing Tuesday in the , former Canadian Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella called South Africa's case an "outrageous and cynical abuse" of the principles of international law, and said it is "legal absurdity" for Israel to be called upon to be confronted with allegations of genocide while it defends itself against the "genocidal organization" of Hamas.

"As a lawyer, I find it shameful; as a Jew, I find it heartbreaking; and as the child of Holocaust survivors, I find it unconscionable," Abella wrote. While most countries have done like Canada and avoided any criticism or statements of support for the case, the U.S. has backed Israel's position that it is misguided.

John Kirby, the spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council, told reporters last week that the case is "meritless, counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever." Meanwhile, a handful of other countries, such as Malaysia, have taken an opposing view. Oncu Keceli, a spokesperson for Turkey's foreign ministry, cited death tolls from the Hamas run health ministry last week as he welcomed South Africa's allegations.

"Israel's massacre of more than 22,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza, the majority of whom were women and children, for nearly three months must not go unpunished and the perpetrators must be held accountable under international law," he . The ICJ case is slated to begin with two hours of hearings on Thursday..