China joins South Africa in calling out US complicity in Israel's ‘repeated violations of international law’ at UN Security Council

Palestine's ambassador also rebuked the Council for their inaction, demanding a ceasefire resolution in accordance with the recent ICJ order

At Wednesday’s UN Security Council meeting, China joined South Africa in calling out the US for its role in the continued "indiscriminate military attacks and destruction of Gaza" by Israel, echoing numerous other country’s calls for a ceasefire.

Here’s a clip:

Regarding the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last week in South Africa's genocide case against Israel, China's ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, said that “the ICJ has taken forceful action” in “the face of repeated violations of international law” and repeated breaches of “human dignity, morality, and conscience.”

He went on to say:

The Security Council has no alternative but to take further action—swiftly—with the greatest sense of responsibility and the strongest determination to safeguard justice, save lives, and achieve peace.

We must push for an immediate ceasefire with the utmost urgency.

There has long been an overwhelming consensus in the international community for an immediate ceasefire. Yet, it's regrettable that a certain country has persisted in their obstruction with a passive attitude.

Real security cannot be achieved by military means, and the protracted fighting in Gaza will only lead to more causalities and wider regional instability, making peace in the Middle East more elusive.

The Security Council should take strong action to pull all diplomatic efforts towards an immediate ceasefire. Israel should immediately cease its indiscriminate military attacks and destruction in Gaza.

At the same time, every effort should be made to prevent the spillover effects of the Gaza conflict on the wider region, including the Red Sea.

We call on all parties to exercise calm and restraint, and to refrain from actions that will exacerbate the situation.

South Africa

When it was South Africa’s turn to speak, Ambassador Mathu Joyini wasted no time underscoring why they see their case against Israel at the ICJ as so important:

“We reiterate that the international community cannot proclaim the importance of international law and the importance of the UN Charter in some situations and not in others, as if the rule of law only applies to a select few,” she said.

“For international law to be credible, it should be uniformly applied, and not selective.”

She went on to summarize Israel's obligations under the ICJ order, noting: “These provisional measures are directly binding on Israel...”

“There's clearly no credible basis for Israel continue to claim that its military actions are in full compliance with international law, including the Genocide Convention...”

Joyini then put the US and other countries on notice: per the Genocide Convention and ICJ order, they must “act independently and immediately to prevent genocide by Israel, and to ensure that they are not themselves in violation of the Genocide Convention, including by aiding or assisting in the commission of genocide.”

“This necessarily imposes an obligation on ALL states to cease funding and facilitating Israel's military actions...”

She noted that—as an occupying power—Israel does not have a right to “self-defense” under international law in their war on Gaza, and that the ICJ's ruling merely “noted” Israel's attempt to claim otherwise, “without giving it any further credence.”

“The assertion by the representatives of the United States and Israel that the court reaffirmed the US understanding of the issue of self-defense is not accurate.”

“The decision by the court marks a decisive victory for the international rule of law, and a significant milestone in the search for justice for the Palestinian people.”

Joyini's comments about Israel's failed “self-defense” argument echo a must-read analysis by Craig Murray, who said in part:

In finding there is a plausible case against Israel, the International Court of Justice treated with contempt the argument from Israel that the case should be dismissed as it is exercising its right of self-defence. This argument took up over half of Israel’s pleadings. Not only did the court find there is a plausible case of genocide, the court only mentioned self-defence once in its interim ruling – and that was merely to note that Israel had claimed it. Para 41:

“In any event, Israel contends, since the purpose of provisional measures is to preserve the rights of both parties, the Court must, in the present case, consider and "balance" the respective rights of South Africa and Israel. The Respondent emphasizes that it bears the responsibility to protect its citizens, including those captured and held hostage as a result of the attack that took place on 7 October 2023. As a consequence, it claims that its right to self-defence is critical to any evaluation of the present situation.”

That the ICJ has not affirmed Israel’s right to self-defence is perhaps the most important point in this interim order. It is the dog that did not bark. The argument which every western leader has been using is spurned by the ICJ.

Now the ICJ did not repeat that an occupying power has no right of self-defence. It did not need to. It simply ignored Israel’s specious assertion.

It could do that because what it went on to iterate went way beyond any plausible assertion of self-defence. What struck me most about the ICJ ruling was that the Order went into far more detail about the evidence of genocide than it needed to. Its description was stark.

Murray’s full analysis was republished on Substack by journalist

Sam Husseini

, who called it “probably the best piece I’ve seen so far on the ICJ ruling.”

Palestine

Palestinian Abassador Riyad Mansour spoke just before South Africa, noting that the ICJ “has offered a resounding rebuke to those who claimed that the case of genocide against Israel was ‘meritless’ and baseless.” (Among them, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby—see video below.)

“The court also dismissed the premise that somehow Israel, by its very nature, would be above the law and could not be accused of committing the crime of genocide...”

“Enough racism and supremacy. Enough impunity.”

Seemingly referencing the debate over whether the ICJ order should have explicitly called for a “ceasefire,” Mansour said in part:

“Concentrate on the six provisional measures adopted. Do not be more royalist than the king. Even the ad hoc judge of Israel voted in favor of these two provisional measures.”

“Read it. Study it. And re-read it to know what's in it; not the illusions in the minds of some of what was not in it.”

“It is CRYSTAL CLEAR that the provisional measures adopted by the court ARE BINDING, and Israel MUST COMPLY with them.”

Ambassador Mansour's comments about the language of the ICJ order echo points made by human rights lawyer Craig Mokhiber (among others). Here are a few clips of him discussing it during an interview with The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal and Aaron Maté last week, shortly after the order was delivered:

Mansour went on to tell the UN Security Council that Israel is already defying the ICJ order:

• Targeting civilians

• Mass indiscriminate attacks

• Maintaining the siege

• Orchestrating famine

• Creating the conditions for dehydration & disease

• Israeli ministers taking part in a Gaza resettlement conference

Here’s a report on the Israeli conference referenced by Ambassador Mansour by Britain’s Channel 4 News. (See also: “Israeli ministers join gathering calling for resettlement of Gaza” from Al Jazeera.)

Mansour called out the UN Security Council’s months of inaction, demanding compliance with the Genocide Convention and ICJ order:

“The court upheld its responsibility (...) the burden is on Israel to implement the six provisional measures, but YOU are not assuming your responsibility in adopting a resolution to call for a ceasefire...”

“When are you going to act accordingly, if you are really serious about respecting your obligations of honoring the ruling of the court...?”

“Every agency of the UN is saying ‘We cannot implement what needs to be implemented without a ceasefire.’ And yet the Security Council, after 115 days of this ABHORRENT, CRIMINAL war against our people in the Gaza Strip, is continuing...”

“With the risk of genocide now recognized by the ICJ, it would be criminal not to act to put an end to this war of atrocities...”

Mansour: “Netanyahu said, ‘No one will stop us. Not The Hague, not the axis of evil, and not anybody else.’ Spoken like a true war criminal!”

“His genocidal words quoted by the court are evil. His genocidal acts are evil. And when the ICC finally decides to uphold its mandate, he should find his place in a jail in The Hague, not in power in Israel...”

“Israel defies the resolutions of the Council, defies the ICJ, the ICC, and it is in an open war against the UN...”

“Israel is trying to dismantle any obstacle to its plan to destroy Palestine and the Palestinian people; to forcibly displace them and replace them; to seize full control ’from the river to the sea,’ and to implement its supremacist and colonial plans.”

He went on to discuss UNRWA in this context:

Concluding his remarks, Ambassador Mansour said:

The choice is clear, more than ever: either allow Israel to dismantle the international law-based order, or uphold its rule. It is time to end Israeli impunity. From colonialism to apartheid; from ethnic cleansing to genocide; when is it time to tell Israel enough is enough?

The policy of cajoling Israel has brought to power the most openly supremacist and racist government in the history of Israel. Only accountability can help us correct course.

Our roadmap is clear: stop the genocide, ceasefire, justice, freedom, peace... in that order. That is the only pathway from this cruel madness. The Palestinian people deserve nothing less. They will accept nothing else.”

Justice is what they have been denied for far too long. Freedom is their birthright. Peace is our common goal and horizon.

Martin Griffiths

Earlier in the meeting, Martin Griffiths, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, provided an update on the disastrous humanitarian situation caused by Israel's on-going war on Gaza:

• 22 of the 36 hospitals non-functional

• Remaining 14 hospitals “only partially” functional

• Severe shortages of medical staff and supplies

• Over 60% of housing units reportedly destroyed or damaged

• An estimated 75% of the population displaced

• Clean water “almost completely inaccessible”

“Heavy rains are flooding the makeshift tent camps, forcing children, parents, and the elderly to sleep in the mud...”

“With little public health support available, preventable diseases are therefore rife, and will continue to spread, and will be become—if they have not already—the chief killer of Gazans,” Griffins said.

“The ability of the humanitarian community to reach the people of Gaza with relief is grossly inadequate. And to say it's grossly inadequate, as it says here, is grossly inadequate.”

“The further spread of hostilities southwards, along with the increasing deprivation and desperation of people there, can only be expected to increase the pressure for mass displacement into neighboring countries.”

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