On Monday, South African lawyers handling the Genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced that they are preparing a separate lawsuit against the United States and the United Kingdom for complicity in Zionist war crimes.
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The new legal action would aim to bring those complicit in the genocide before civil courts, said Wikus Van Rensburg, who said that the team of South African lawyers has maintained contact with American and British lawyers to finalize the new judicial action.
Even if the U.S. does not accept the ICJ ruling, it should at least receive sanctions as happened with Germany, a country that is still paying compensation for the Holocaust.
The United States must now be held accountable for the crimes it committed,' says Van Rensburg, who is leading the 47-lawyers team.
“We intend to bring legal proceedings against the U.S. Government based on overwhelming evidence that the U.S. Government has, and is, aiding, abetting and supporting, encouraging or providing material assistance and means to Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces. This conduct by the U.S. Government has enabled and continues to enable Israel to engage in international crimes against the Palestinian people,” the South African lawyers said in a letter sent to US President Joe Biden on January 2.
“These crimes resulted in, among others, the displacement of the Palestinian people from their homes and property, destruction of Palestinian property, theft of Palestinian land and which facilitate and assist Israel in committing the ongoing and current war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide , and intentional killing of innocent civilians, including men, women, children and babies as well as the elderly and disabled.”
“The U.S. Government has recently used purported emergency authority provisions to provide 14,000 tank shells, among others, to Israel without Congressional review. In particular, the U.S. Government has indicated that it supposedly used the Arms Export Control Act (presumably P.L. 90-629 as amended through P.L. 117-263, Enacted December 23, 2022, as amended through P.L. 117-263) emergency declaration for the tank rounds worth approximately US$106.5 million for delivery to Israel early in December 2023," they added.
“The tank shells so supplied by the U.S. government to Israel is part of a bigger sale for which Congressional approval will be sought for the larger arms package worth more than US$500 million and comprises of, amongst others, 45,000 shells for Israel's Merkava tanks, which tanks are regularly deployed in Israel's offensive in Gaza, which offensive has killed thousands of civilians' and which continues to kill civilians on a daily basis,” the lawyers pointed out.
South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana stressed that lawyers are complying with the “rule of law” by going to an institution established by the United Nations.
“Of course, Israel's supporters, including the UK, will say our request is nonsense. However, there is global support for our view that our case was substantial,” he stated.
Acting precisely in that sense, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron expressed that the accusations are “nonsense.” Meanwhile, White House Homeland Security spokesman John Kirby said the lawsuit is “counterproductive and completely baseless.”