The Legal Department of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine welcomed the announcement by the International Court of Justice regarding Belgium’s official joining of the case filed by South Africa against Israel for genocide in the Gaza Strip. The department considered this accession as reflecting the growing official and popular momentum worldwide, calling for Israel to be held accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people.
The department emphasized that the importance of Belgium’s joining is particularly evident in its timing, amid announcements by several countries resuming military support to the Israeli occupation, which continues its aggression in Gaza despite the UN Security Council’s resolution calling for a halt to hostilities, and escalates attacks in the West Bank. The Legal Department noted that this situation requires both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court to take these official positions of certain states into account, considering them a clear violation of international resolutions and the arrest warrants issued against Netanyahu and Gallant.
The Legal Department warned that international law prohibits any state or entity from providing weapons or military support to the Israeli occupation accused of committing war crimes and genocide. It clarified that the legal framework criminalizing such cooperation includes: Articles 33 and 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Articles 3 and 6 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), Article 25 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, as well as several resolutions of the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly.
The department stressed that states are obliged to suspend all forms of cooperation with the occupation as long as a case is pending before the international courts; otherwise, they may be considered accomplices in the crime. Likewise, companies providing military support to the occupation are subject to legal accountability for contributing to serious violations of human rights or crimes against humanity and can be prosecuted before the International Criminal Court or national courts, especially in countries that have laws prohibiting dealings with entities involved in such violations.
Finally, the Legal Department of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine emphasized that UN Security Council Resolution 2803 does not restrict the international community’s efforts to uphold international justice, nor does it prevent measures aimed at holding the occupation and all those who facilitated its war crimes in Gaza accountable. The department noted that war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide, are not subject to statutes of limitation, meaning that all states bear direct responsibility to ensure the cessation of all military cooperation with the occupier and to cooperate with international judicial bodies to compel perpetrators to appear before the International Criminal Court.