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‘Unfounded and Defamatory’: With Ruling Coming, 210 House Members Denounce South Africa’s Genocide Case Against Israel
The International Criminal Court, The Hague, Netherlands. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Amid anticipation of Friday’s interim decision from the International Court of Justice on South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, 210 members of the United States House of Representatives signed a letter calling South Africa’s case against Israel “grossly unfounded and defamatory.” The letter expressed its “disgust” with South Africa’s ask for the court to impose a “halt [in] its military efforts in Gaza.”
The letter reads, “South Africa’s accusation of genocide against Israel exposes how far Israel’s enemies will go in their attempts to demonize the Jewish state. While barely acknowledging the Hamas terrorists who gleefully massacred, mutilated, raped, and kidnapped innocent civilians on October 7, South Africa makes grossly unfounded and defamatory charges against Israel on the world stage, abusing the judicial process in order to delegitimize the democratic State of Israel.”
The members of Congress conclude by reaffirming that they “vigorously denounce South Africa’s deeply hostile stance towards Israel and thoroughly reject its charge of genocide.”
Friday’s ruling will not include a decision on whether Israel is committing genocide, but rather on emergency measures to impose a cessation of fighting ,
Members from both parties signed the letter, signaling there is still bipartisan support not only for Israel in general, but for its current military operations as well.
At the same time, a growing number of young people in the United States say they believe Israel is committing genocide, as do some academics who study the subject. Numerous countries, such as Turkey, Jordan, Columbia, Brazil, and Pakistan have supported South Africa’s case. But Germany is intervening as a third party on the side of Israel, and other countries such as the U.S. and France have spoken out against South Africa’s case.
The rulings of the ICJ are binding, but it does not have specific enforcement mechanisms to ensure the relevant parties comply with them. It is unlikely that Israel will comply with any ruling which places significant roadblocks to achieving the goals of its military campaign.
Support for Israel in the U.S. remains robust, with at least one recent Harvard CAPS-Harris poll showing that 80 percent of Americans — including majorities from every age demographic — support Israel over Hamas.
Additionally, recent data show that whereas the civilian-to-combatant casualty ratio in this war is somewhere between 1.5:1 and 3:1 based on different estimates of the number of Hamas terrorists killed, the global average is 9:1 according to the United Nations and the Center for Civilians in Conflict.
The post ‘Unfounded and Defamatory’: With Ruling Coming, 210 House Members Denounce South Africa’s Genocide Case Against Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) filed a lawsuit challenging as unconstitutional the Trump administration’s actions to deport international students and scholars who protest or express support for Palestinian rights.
The lawsuit, filed on Saturday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York, seeks a nationwide temporary restraining order to block enforcement of two executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump in the first month of his term.
The lawsuit comes after the detention of a Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent, whose arrest sparked protests this month.
Justice Department lawyers have argued that the US government is seeking Khalil’s removal because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reasonable grounds to believe his activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Rubio on Friday said the United States will likely revoke visas of more students in the coming days.
Trump vowed to deport activists who took part in protests on US college campuses against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza following the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian terrorists.
The ADC lawsuit was filed on behalf of two graduate students and a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who say their activism and support of the Palestinian people “has put them at serious risk of political persecution.”
“This lawsuit is a necessary step to preserve our most fundamental constitutional protections. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech and expression to all persons within the United States, without exception,” said Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the ADC.
Chris Godshall-Bennett, the group’s legal director, said the litigation seeks immediate and long-term relief “to protect international students from any unconstitutional overreach that stifles free expression and deters them from fully engaging in academic and public discourse.”
The lawsuit centers on three Cornell University plaintiffs: a British-Gambian national and PhD student with a student visa; a US citizen PhD student working on plant science; and a US citizen novelist, poet, and professor in the Department of Literatures in English.
The post Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week
Israel’s Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar speaks at Reichman University in Herzliya on Sunday, September 11, 2022. Photo: Screenshot
i24 News – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security agency, that he will bring a vote before his government to dismiss him next week.
The post Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes
Newly recruited fighters who joined a Houthi military force intended to be sent to fight in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, march during a parade in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 2, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – The Houthis claimed on Sunday that they targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and other vessels in the northern Red Sea with 18 ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone. Military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the US-led attacks against the Houthis on Saturday comprised of more than 47 airstrikes on seven governorates, with the death toll expected to rise.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and in the Arabian Sea in retaliation to the aggression against our country,” Saree said, vowing the Houthis “will continue to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy and ban its ships in the declared zone of operations until aid and basic needs are delivered to the Gaza Strip.”
The post Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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