A Pity No Muslim Nation Hauled Israel To Icj Says Don

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Sociology professor Syed Farid Alatas said South Africa’s action had shown up the hypocrisy of western nations.PETALING JAYA: The fact that neither Malaysia nor any other Muslim nation that claims to defend Palestine had hauled Israel to the United Nations’ top court calls for some self-reflection, says an academic.
Syed Farid Alatas of the National University of Singapore said Malaysia should support the International Court of Justice’s ruling that Israel must prevent genocidal acts and facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza urgently.
He commended South Africa for exposing Western hypocrisy by challenging Israel’s actions at the ICJ, unlike Malaysia and other Muslim nations.
“Through the filing of this case, South Africa has shown the hypocrisy of the powerful nations of the West who claim to uphold the rule of law but failed to take Israel to task.
“It took a country from the global south to do that. It’s a pity that Malaysia and other Muslim nations did not play such a heroic role,” he told FMT.
On Friday, the ICJ urged Israel to refrain from committing “possible genocidal acts” in Gaza, though it stopped short of ordering a ceasefire. South Africa had brought the case against Israel earlier this month, accusing it of breaching the UN Genocide Convention through its military operations in Gaza.
The ICJ did not consider whether Israel was committing genocide in Gaza as that process will take several years.
While disappointed that the ICJ did not call for a ceasefire, Farid said a positive development was that it demanded Israel stop the killing or destruction of the Palestinian people while reporting to the ICJ on measures taken to prevent such incidents.
“More importantly, the ICJ has not thrown out the case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. The ICJ will eventually rule on the merits of the genocide allegations against Israel, a process that is likely to take years.”
Israel launched a military offensive against the Gaza Strip after the Hamas militant group launched an attack on Oct 7, killing approximately 1,140 people in Israel, the majority of whom were civilians.
At least 26,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since then through Israeli bombardments and ground offensive, with Hamas saying about 70% of the victims were women, young children, and adolescents. - FMT

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