Bolivia joins South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel

South American state ‘has a responsibility to condemn the crime of genocide’, it says in its filing.

Bolivia has formally joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), according to the court in The Hague.

The South American nation filed an application on Tuesday to intervene in the case, which accuses Israel of perpetrating “genocidal acts” in violation of the Genocide Convention in its war on Gaza.

Bolivia’s move puts it among a growing list of states engaged in the case, including Colombia, Libya, Spain, Mexico, Palestine, Nicaragua and Turkey.

In January, the ICJ ruled that Israel must do everything in its power to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza and ensure United Nations-mandated investigators have “unimpeded access” to the enclave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the court’s interim ruling as “outrageous” and said Israel would continue its “just war”.

A month later, rights group Amnesty International said Israel had “failed to take the bare minimum steps” to comply with the ICJ’s order.

South Africa has since returned several times to the ICJ, arguing that Gaza’s desperate humanitarian situation demands new emergency measures.

In late May, the ICJ ordered Israel to immediately halt its offensive in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, a ruling Israel also ignored.

While ICJ rulings are legally binding, the court has no means to enforce them.

In its submission to the ICJ, Bolivia, which severed ties with Israel in November, argued: “Israel’s genocidal war continues, and the Court’s orders remain dead letters to Israel.”

“Bolivia seeks to intervene since it considers that it has a responsibility to condemn the crime of genocide,” it said.

Israel’s yearlong war in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 people, most of them civilians, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health. That is equal to one out of every 55 people living there. An attack led by Hamas, the Palestinian group that administers Gaza, killed 1,139 people in Israel on October 7, 2023.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the main relief group operating in Gaza, said in a post commemorating the first anniversary of the war that people in the enclave are continuing to endure “unspeakable suffering”.

“Not a day goes by without families in Gaza being subjected to unspeakable suffering, as forced displacement, disease, hunger, and death have become the daily norm for two million people trapped in a bombed-out and besieged enclave,” Lazzarini said.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies