49 Fall 2024 spewing modern blood libel in the form of charging Israel with intentionally starving Palestinians in Gaza, one UN agency quietly pulled back from such allegations. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revised the widely circulated, and inflated figures significantly downward.15 The Famine Review Committee (FRC), an international body of nutrition and food security experts, also reversed earlier projections about famine in northern Gaza and has now said that the alleged famine does not exist.16 Even the chief economist of the UN World Food Programme, Arif Husain, admitted that no real data exist on starvation deaths in Gaza. “It’s not even a matter of being available. I don’t think that they are even collected.”17 Save for the Jewish media, one would be hard pressed to find this admission anywhere. For months, government spokespersons and especially those at the UN, blamed Israel for supposedly holding up humanitarian aid for Gazans, using the aid as an instrument of war. But beyond the occasional mention of Hamas “taking its cut,” it is hard to find any blame being placed on the UN or other actors tasked with delivering assistance. Indeed, one article on the subject referred only to “gangs” and “family clans” spiriting away the assistance to the black market, or being primarily involved in selling bootleg cigarettes, but nothing about how Hamas not only takes its “cut,” but just as important, uses the famine, starvation and thirst issue as an important element of its continuing efforts to demonize Israel. The ICJ, the ICC and the Special Rapporteur The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the primary legal organ of the United Nations. In recent years, as the BDS movement grew beyond university campuses, there has been an increasing concern that the genocide claims made against Israel could make their way to the ICJ in The Hague. South Africa, and its longtime ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), has been closely aligned with the PLO for years, and is now working with both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA). South Africa has brought the current charges against Israel, alleging that “acts and omissions” by Israel “are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.”18 South Africa is joined and supported by several “usual suspect” countries including Chile, Colombia, Ireland, Spain, Turkey, Egypt and Mexico. ICJ judges are not appointed directly by national governments; they are nominated by groups of legal experts in international law and voted upon by the UN General Assembly. That said, the appointees are often expected to reflect the prevailing political winds in their home countries. The current ICJ president, Nawaf Salam, is a former permanent representative to the UN from Lebanon. There are fifteen members of the court and two ad hoc judges in the genocide case (one from each side of the case). Israel will defend itself against the charges. Legal adviser of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tal Becker, told a group gathered at the Palace of Peace in The Hague that Israel is engaged in a “war that it did not start and did not want,” and that “In these circumstances, there can hardly be a charge more false or more malevolent than the allegation against Israel of genocide.”19 In sum, the charges of genocide hurled against Israel and Jewish students by pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas demonstrators has now reached The Hague. The perverse act brought to the Court by South Africa and its fellow travelers is indeed a blood libel of immense proportions. That the case has now been joined by several European and South American members of the democratic community demonstrates a further warping of a term much used today: moral clarity. 15. Jeremy Sharon, “UN cuts by more than half the number of women, children ‘identified’ as killed in Gaza,” TIMES OF ISRAEL, May 13, 2024, available at https://www. timesofisrael.com/un-drastically-revises-downwardnumber-of-identified-women-children-killed-in-gaza/ 16. Flash Brief, “Expert Panel Rejects Claims of Famine in Northern Gaza,” FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES, June 17, 2024, available at https://www. fdd.org/analysis/2024/06/17/expert-panel-rejects-claimsof-famine-in-northern-gaza/ 17. Miri Weissman, “UN official admits no evidence of famine in Gaza,” ISRAEL HAYOM, June 30, 2024, available at https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/06/30/un-officialadmits-lack-of-data-on-famine-in-gaza/ 18. Raffi Berg, “What is South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the ICJ?” BBC NEWS, May 24, 2024, available at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67922346 19. Ministry of Foreign Affairs Press Release, “Opening statement of MFA Legal Advisor Dr. Tal Becker at the International Court of Justice proceedings,” GOV.IL, Jan. 12, 2024, available at https://www.gov.il/en/pages/ opening-statement-of-mfa-legal-advisor-tal-becker-aticj-proceedings-12-jan-2024
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