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Hamas Should Go on Trial at the International Court of Justice
(National Post-Canada) Irwin Cotler - Genocide is the ultimate crime against humanity. This Thursday and Friday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will hear an application by South Africa alleging that Israel is in breach of the Genocide Convention due to its conduct in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. These proceedings turn fact and law on their head, inverting reality and effectively undermining international justice and the rules-based international order. The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists invaded Israel and committed mass war crimes and crimes against humanity. Over 1,200 people - mostly civilians - were brutally murdered and 240 Israelis were taken as hostages to Gaza. The context that set the stage for those heinous acts is the crime of incitement to genocide, not only by Hamas but by its patron, the Islamic Republic of Iran. By launching a baseless proceeding against Israel for genocide, it provides protective cover to Hamas and its related Iranian terrorist proxies, who themselves are the ones guilty of those crimes. The writer, International Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, is a former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.