The ICJ just took the Holocaust monopoly away from Israel
Palestinians mourn loved ones as they are taken out of the mortuary of al-Aqsa hospital for burial in Deir el-Balah, Gaza on 26 January 2024
Jonathan Ofir writes in Mondoweiss on 29 January 2024:
In its very essence, the International Court of Justice’s Order last Friday to Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza and punish incitement for genocide accepts the possibility of Israel being a perpetrator of genocide and not just its historical victim. As it continues to investigate the plausible claim of genocide submitted by South Africa and to pursue it to a final ruling, which may take months (hopefully not years) to complete, it has already made history on this point.
Mouin Rabbani cogently remarked in his analysis thread on X: “History – with a capital H – was made today. As of 26 January 2024, Israel and its Western sponsors can no longer mobilize the Holocaust to shield themselves from accountability for their crimes against the Palestinian people”.
Unsurprisingly, the Israeli judge ad hoc Aharon Barak desperately tried to save the monopoly on being victims forever.Barak’s long dissenting opinion on the ICJ Order consists of 49 points, including a whole section titled “Genocide: an autobiographical remark,” where he describes his own experience in the Holocaust as a child in Lithuania. He waxes emotional about how “the Nazis succeeded in murdering many of our people, but they could not take away our humanity.”
Barak goes through the tiresome hasbara claims that “Israel is a democracy with a strong legal system and an independent judicial system” (which is an apartheid state with a supreme court that has legalized its most central aspects, not least under his presidency), bizarrely claims there is a lack of evidence for Israeli “intent” for genocide (rarely has a genocide case been so explicit on that matter), and returns to the Holocaust in his last point:
“Genocide is a shadow over the history of the Jewish people, and it is intertwined with my own personal experience. The idea that Israel is now accused of committing genocide is very hard for me personally, as a genocide survivor deeply aware of Israel’s commitment to the rule of law as a Jewish and democratic State”. That it’s hard for Barak to accept this is understandable. Nobody said this was supposed to be easy. Indeed, realizing that you have become a perpetrator of genocide after having lived a lifetime narrative of singular victimhood is indeed a difficult turn.