Gaza Genocide Accusations: Israel In the Dock

After United Nations investigators accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, what charges do the country and its leaders face in international courts, and what happens next?

Two institutions based in The Hague: the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The two are often mixed up, even by seasoned observers.

The ICC, set up in 2002, prosecutes individuals suspected of committing the world’s worst crimes: war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

The much older ICJ, established in 1948, weighs disputes between countries, usually with one nation accusing another of breaking an international treaty.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which does not speak on behalf of the world body, found that “genocide is occurring in Gaza”, commission chief Navi Pillay told AFP.

Pillay said her team had shared “thousands of pieces of information” with ICC prosecutors.

Thijs Bouwknegt, a genocide expert at the University of Amsterdam, said both international courts would examine the report as one piece of evidence among several.

“If I were an investigator, I would look at the report and use it as one of the many other sources,” he told AFP.

But Bouwknegt said the report was also a call to political action.

“For a report to have effect, you need people to do something with it. This is political agency,” he said.

“It’s for state ministers or government leaders to do something with the report if they feel they want to change something in Gaza.”