Spain will intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel‘s war on Gaza at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), its foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares announced on Thursday.
“We made this decision in view of the continuation of the military operation in Gaza,” Albares said during a news conference. “Our sole goal is to put an end to the war and to advance on the road of applying the two-state solution.”
The decision comes two weeks after Spain, along with Ireland and Norway, announced their recognition of Palestine as a state, prompting Israeli backlash.
Spain is the second European nation after Ireland to declare its intention to intervene in the case accusing Israel of breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Last week, Mexico said it had filed a declaration of intervention in the same case, joining several countries that either applied or announced their intention to apply for intervention.
Albares said that Madrid intended to provide support to the work of the court, “especially to the precautionary measures that have to be applied”.
On 26 January, weeks after South Africa had taken Israel to the Hague-based court over accusations of genocide against Palestinians, the ICJ delivered an interim ruling calling on Israel to take urgent provisional measures.
It ordered Israel to take measures to prevent acts that fall under Article II of the Genocide Convention, namely: killing members of a particular group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately bringing about the physical destruction of the group, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.
The court also ordered Israel to enable the provision of urgent humanitarian aid, prevent the destruction of evidence of crimes and to prevent and punish incitement to commit genocide against Palestinians.
The court did not order Israel to halt its military operations in Gaza, one of South Africa’s key demands. It also did not rule on whether Israel was committing genocide, and will likely not do so for some time.
Since the ruling was announced, Israel has consistently defied the provisional measures.
“Humanitarian aid is still unable to access the population in Gaza,” said Albares on Thursday.
In a separate ruling last month, the ICJ ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, following another plea from South Africa.
Albares said that Spain did “not have double standards”, pointing out that Madrid also participated in legal procedures related to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Diplomatic spat with Israel
Two weeks ago, Spain, along with Norway and Ireland, announced their recognition of a Palestinian state, joining over 140 other full UN members that already do the same.
In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Spain’s consulate in Jerusalem would no longer be able to provide services to Palestinians and called on its government to “study the 700 years of Islamic rule in al-Andalus”.
“I have decided to sever the connection between Spain’s representation in Israel and the Palestinians, and to prohibit the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem from providing services to Palestinians from the West Bank”.
The Spanish consulate for Palestinians, led by Consul-General Alfonso Lucini Mateo, is located in Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem.
Israeli officials also reacted angrily after Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Diaz last month said the phrase: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
While some pro-Israeli voices claim that the slogan calls for the destruction of Israel, pro-Palestinian activists have long maintained that it refers to an end to Israeli human rights abuses and occupation throughout the lands that made up historic Palestine.
Katz took aim at Diaz by highlighting the period of mediaeval history when the Iberian peninsula was under Islamic rule.
“If this ignorant, hate-filled individual wants to understand what radical Islam truly seeks, she should study the 700 years of Islamic rule in Al-Andalus – today’s Spain,” he said.
His comments were widely criticised and ridiculed on social media, with many people noting its historical inaccuracy.
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