This just blew my mind. Now the hearing isn't until Friday, so we won't know for sure before then - but holy moly. For reference, the list of people that South Africa has quoted to demonstrate Israel's genocidal intent are:
President Isaac Herzog
Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant
Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir
Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Israel Katz
Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich
Israeli Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu
Israeli Minister of Agriculture Avi Dichter
the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and Foreign Affairs Committee member Nissim Vaturi
In addition to that, they also cite Major General Ghassan Alian (the COGAT army coordinator in charge of many things including how humanitarian aid gets delivered into Gaza), Reserve Major General Giora Eiland (former Head of the Israeli National Security and advisor to the Defense Minister), a 94 year old reservist (and apparently active duty soldier), Lieutenant Colonel Gilad Kinan (Head of the IDF's Air Operations Group), and the commander of the 2908th Battalion. Also cited are the Deputy head of COGAT and "Israeli army soldiers".
Now technically, yes - the 94 year old soldier is likely not making policy level decisions. So not all of the people cited are decision makers. But this is just a willful misinterpretation of the evidence - which requires that you ignore 95% of it. Which they do with the "It's just a prank bro" defense. Breathtaking in its audaciousness - I have to give them that.
This isn't remotely credible. In fact, they almost certainly won't be able to get a single one of the people quoted to say that their statements don't mean that they want Gazans punished. Moreover - even after the suit was filed (and after a group of Israelis wrote to the Attorney General highlighting the language) - Knesset members make the argument for the case of genocidal intent.
A member of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) from Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party said on Tuesday that it is becoming increasingly clear to Israelis that “all Gazans must be destroyed,” it has been reported.
“My friends at the prosecutor’s office, who fought with me on political matters, in debates, tell me, ‘Moshe, it is clear that all the Gazans need to be destroyed,’ and these are statements I have never heard,” Moshe Saada told Channel 14. He claimed that the rise in calls to destroy all Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip proves that the right-wing was correct “all along”.
Today, he added, the matter is simple. “Everywhere I go, they [Israelis] tell me that all the residents of Gaza must be destroyed.”
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