“Maybe you should sit this one out” can be one of Israel’s rallying cries at The Hague tomorrow, when it answers South Africa’s accusations in the International Court of Justice. The quote is from Senator Fetterman, who is emerging as one of Israel’s staunchest supporters on Capitol Hill. Pretoria is accusing the Jewish state of genocidal intentions in its war against Hamas, an organization that calls for, and attempts to kill, all Jews. 

There are many ways that the renowned British jurist Malcom Shaw, who was hired by Israel to lead its ICJ defense team, could substantiate Mr. Fetterman’s succinct summation of the absurdities of Pretoria’s case. The South African legal team, headed by a long-time Israel critic, John Dugard, presented its case today. It largely rests on snippets of statements from Israeli officials, soldiers, and even a popular singer, Eyal Golan. 

By that standard of evidence, it is easy enough to pull quotes that could substantiate claims that South Africa advocates genocide. I am “not calling for the slaughtering of whites, at least for now,” the leader of the third-largest party in the Pretoria parliament, Julius Malema, said in 2022. The party, and a prosecution team member, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, often chant “kill the Boer.” By Pretoria’s own criterion it is guilty, and therefore must sit this one out. 

Sorting out genocide allegations at the ICJ could take years. More immediately, South Africa hopes an interim injunction will force Israel to end its Gaza war while the court deliberates the case. In a similar case in 2022, the ICJ ruled that Russia must “immediately suspend the military operations” in Ukraine. Yet, that war goes on. Perhaps Moscow, as well as its war supporter and BRICS ally, South Africa, will sit this one out.

Aside from political posturing in an election year, South Africa’s prosecution is aligned with the Palestinian Arabs. Hamas’s spokesmen thank it for “exposing” Israel’s crimes. The Palestinian Authority strives for unity with Hamas, whose October 7 horrors went unmentioned in today’s courtroom diatribe. “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it,” is etched in the Hamas charter. The Palestinians should sit this one out.   

Then there is the ICJ, a United Nations organ. In 2023 the UN General Assembly condemned Israel 17 times, while passing only eight resolutions on the rest of the world. UN Watch exposed Facebook postings of 3,000 Gaza teachers that celebrated the October 7 massacre. They are employed by the UN’s top Gaza body, United Nations Relief and Works Agency. The UN vows to investigate, as it has done since UNRWA was founded in 1949.    

While the UN ought to be first to sit out any Israel-related issue, Jerusalem takes the ICJ seriously. Prime Minister Netanyahu issued a statement in English, hoping to defuse allegations of genocide. Earlier he named one of his top Israeli nemeses, Aharon Barak, a former Supreme Court president, to represent Israel among the court’s 15 judges. Germany, Britain, and America denounced what Secretary Blinken calls Pretoria’s “meritless” charge. 

Mr. Shaw and his Israeli team will no doubt make a fine case tomorrow. The Jewish state was one of the first countries to join the convention it is now accused of violating. The word genocide was coined by a Jewish lawyer, Rafael Lemkin, to describe the Holocaust. Calling Israel’s war against genocide a “genocide” is a mockery as Pretoria increasingly allies with Iran, Qatar, and other Hamas benefactors. All could take Mr. Fetterman’s advice.