ICJ ruling on Gaza genocide a 'major defeat' for Israel, says BDS committee

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement has welcomed the "historic" interim ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday in the case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

The court imposed a series of measures urging Israel to do all it can to stop committing genocidal acts in war-torn Gaza, where Tel Aviv’s military onslaught has been ongoing for almost four months.

BDS, a nonviolent Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel, said the ICJ "made history" in its ruling by confirming the plausibility of South Africa's charge under the Genocide Convention.

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) in a statement urged for all states to comply with their legal obligations by "unilaterally and collectively taking all feasible measures to urgently and definitively ensure that Israel respects the court's decision and implements in full and without delay its ordered provisional measures".

It noted that while the court fell short of explicitly ordering an immediate and permanent ceasefire to stop the genocide, states must now be pressured to fulfill their legal obligations and to impose on Israel a ceasefire.

"The ICJ decision now puts heightened legal – not to mention moral – responsibility on the shoulders of states that respect international law, civil society, and people of conscience worldwide to bring to an end Israel’s ongoing genocide and to help dismantle its underlying system of oppression," the statement said.

It called for accountability for aiding war crimes, crimes against humanity, and potentially genocide, and urged for imposing a two-way military embargo, adopting a UN arms embargo, and taking punitive measures against Israel.

"Third States that have knowingly supplied arms, materials and other support to Israel for use in atrocity crimes, including genocide, must be held to account for contributing to internationally wrongful acts and breaches of jus cogens norms of international law," the statement said.

It called for economic sanctions against Israel and its expulsion from the international fora and ICC action against Israeli perpetrators. and stressed the responsibility to address the root causes of the Palestinian Nakba.

"We call on people around the world to seize this moment created by the ICJ ruling and respond to the Palestinian Unified Call to strengthen the growing global state of solidarity with the Palestinian people and our just cause by supporting - and actively participating in - the global, Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement," the statement added.

Israel's brutal onslaught on Gaza has killed over 26,000 people - mostly women and children, and injured at least 64,000 others.