ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday hailed a “significant” decision by the top United Nations (UN) court asking Israel to prevent the genocide of Palestinians in its war against Hamas, reiterating its call for a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) stopped short of ordering a ceasefire in Gaza, but decided not to throw out genocide charges against Israel for its military offensive in Gaza as part of a preliminary decision in a case brought by South Africa.
Friday’s decision by the UN top court was only an interim one, but it could take years for the ICJ to consider the full case brought by South Africa. Israel rejects the genocide accusation and had asked the court to throw the charges out.
Pakistan welcomed the provisional measures, including the prevention of the commission of acts prohibited by the UN Genocide Convention, ordered by the ICJ, by which Islamabad said the court had concluded, prima facie, it had the jurisdiction to entertain the case against Israel and that South Africa’s claim of genocide was “plausible.”
“We consider the ICJ’s ruling timely and a significant milestone in the pursuit of justice for the Palestinian people and international accountability of Israel,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
“Pakistan calls for the full and effective implementation of the ICJ’s decision so that basic human rights, dignity and identity of Palestinian people as a distinct group are upheld and protected, as stipulated by the UN Charter, relevant UN resolutions, and international law.”
Islamabad said the implementation of these provisional measures required an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to bring about an end to the suffering of the people of Gaza.
Israel launched its massive air and ground assault on Gaza after Hamas militants stormed through Israeli communities on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and abducting another 250.
The offensive has decimated vast swaths of the Palestinian territory and driven nearly 85 percent of its 2.3 million people from their homes. More than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed, the Palestinian health ministry said on Friday.
Pakistan does not recognize Israel as a state and calls for a viable, independent, and contiguous Palestinian State, with pre-1967 borders, Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital, and a comprehensive and lasting solution to the Palestinian question in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions.
On Friday, Islamabad reaffirmed its unwavering support to the Palestinian people in their “just and legitimate struggle” for their right to self-determination as well as its support of the case filed by South Africa in the ICJ, according to the Pakistani foreign ministry.
The genocide case strikes at the national identity of Israel, which was founded as a Jewish state after the Nazi slaughter of 6 million Jews during the World War II.
South Africa’s own identity is key to it bringing the case. Its governing party, the African National Congress, has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Black people to “homelands” before ending in 1994.
