Dublin (Quds News Network)- Ireland has formally joined South Africa’s Gaza genocide case against Israel, according to a statement on Tuesday from the International Court of Justice.
The filing, made on Monday, comes months after Ireland announced plans to intervene in the case before the United Nations’ highest judicial body.
“Ireland, invoking Article 63 of the Statute of the Court, filed in the Registry of the Court a declaration of intervention in the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip,” the court said in a statement on Tuesday.
South Africa brought its case to the ICJ in December 2023, accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel has strongly rejected the accusations, describing South Africa’s filing as a “despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the Court.”
In an initial ruling in January 2024, the court ordered Israel to restrain its attacks in Gaza, and in May it ordered it to immediately halt its military offensive in the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza.
The United Nations allows countries to “intervene” in proceedings if they are parties to the United Nations’ 1948 Genocide Convention.
The ICJ said that Ireland had on Monday joined Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico, Libya, Bolivia, Turkey, the Maldives, Chile, Spain, and the State of Palestine in asking to intervene in the case.
A spokesperson for Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed the filing on Tuesday, according to The New York Times.
“It is important for the Court, in its consideration of any multilateral convention, to understand how other parties to that convention interpret and apply it,” it said in a statement.
The filing was long anticipated. In December 2024, the government approved a plan to file its argument in the case, with Micheál Martin, the deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs, saying that it would be filed in The Hague, where the court is based, within weeks.
“There has been a collective punishment of the Palestinian people through the intent and impact of military actions of Israel in Gaza, leaving 44,000 dead and millions of civilians displaced,” Mr. Martin said in December, adding that Ireland would ask the court to broaden its interpretation of what constitutes the commission of genocide by a state.
“We are concerned that a very narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide leads to a culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is minimized,” he added.
Today the Government gave approval for Ireland to intervene in South Africa’s International Court of Justice case against Israel under the Genocide Convention. pic.twitter.com/raOoj8xMrG
— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) December 11, 2024
The decision to intervene in the case reflects Ireland’s longstanding support for the Palestinian cause, rooted in part in a shared history of British colonialism.
Relations between Ireland and Israel reached a nadir in December when Israel announced it was closing its embassy in Dublin, citing what it said were “the extreme anti-Israel policies of the Irish government.” Israeli officials said the action did not mean that Israel was severing diplomatic relations with Ireland.
The move came after after Ireland recognised a Palestinian state in May, and announced in December it would formally intervene at the ICJ to support South Africa’s genocide case.
Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Simon Harris slammed Israel’s decision, writing on social media platform X: “This is a deeply regrettable decision from the Netanyahu government.