2. 2
A SHORT HISTORY
• The occupation of Palestine began 65 years ago.
• In 1948 at the massacre of Deir Yasin, 250 people
were murdered.
• 800 000 Palestinians became refugees when 531
villages were destroyed.
• This led to the Arab-Israeli Wars in 1948,1967 and
1973.
• Between 1949 and 1967 the Israeli armed forces
carried out over 40 military attacks on Palestinian
territories.
• Not one village, not one tribe should be left - Joseph
Weitz, Head of Jewish Agencies Colonisation
Department.
3. 3
THE ROME STATUTE
• Treaty adopted in Rome to establish the ICC, 17 July
1998.
• Thus far ratified by 110 countries.
• The USA & Israel are not signatories.
• SA legislature have drafted the ICC Act 27 of 2002
(implementation of the Rome Statute).
• The Act was ratified and accepted into SA domestic
Law and has been in effect since July 2002.
• The guiding provisions for jurisdiction are enshrined
in chapter 2.
4. 4
OPERATION CAST LEAD
• 27 December 2008 - 18 January 2009.
• Over 1400 Palestinians murdered , 40% of which
were women and children.
• 3 Israelis civilians and 9 Israeli soldiers were killed by
friendly fire.
• The IDF acted illegally by using White Phosphorus,
Dime Bombs, Nail Bombs, Drones, Flechettes.
• The IDF targeted schools and UN shelters,
ambulances, hospitals and government buildings.
• The IDF destroyed places of worship and targeted
children.
5. 5
WHAT IS THE GAZA DOCKET?
• The Gaza Docket is a body of evidence which was collected
over 8 months by the Palestine Solidarity Alliance and the Media
Review Network.
• On 3 August 2009 a joint request was made by the PSA and
MRN to the National Director of Public Prosecution ( NDPP), an
organ of state and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and
the Directorate of Priority Crimes Investigations (DPCI), to
investigate and if appropriate prosecute in South Africa
individuals involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity
during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead.
• The Docket was sent to: Office of the State President, Ministry
of Police, Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation,
Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development, Ministry of
Safety and Security and the Office of the Commissioner of
Police.
6. 6
EVIDENCE IN THE GAZA
DOCKET?
• Reports from various respected international organisations
• Affidavits in excess of 3500 pages.
• Reports by medical practitioners working in Gaza during
Operation Cast Lead.
• Compelling and comprehensive justification of certain named
individuals for international crimes under South Africa’s ICC
Act.
• Israel’s laws and policies in the occupied territories fit the
definition of ‘apartheid’ given by the International Convention on
the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.
• Israel’s laws and policies and systematic implementation thereof
constitutes a crime against humanity as envisaged in the Rome
Statute.
• Pictorial and video evidence including footage from Al Jazeera.
7. 7
ISSUES COVERED BY THE
GAZA DOCKET
• The commission of war crimes.
• The commission of crimes against humanity.
• The crime of Apartheid: The authorities
should assess whether Israel is practicing a
form of colonialism and apartheid in its
treatment of Palestinians.
• The investigation of foreign and local
individuals who have participated in the
commission of the above crimes during
Operation Cast Lead.
8. 8
TZIPI LIVNI
• An Israeli politician who currently serves as Minister of Justice
of Israel. She previously served as a minister in the Israeli
cabinet from 2001 to 2009, most notably serving as Minister of
Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2009.
• She has served as a lieutenant in theIDF and in the elite
Mossad unit responsible for Operation Wrath of God also known
as ‘Bayonet’, in the 1980s.
• During Operation Case Lead she was quoted as saying "Israel
has been supplying comprehensive humanitarian aid to the
Gaza Strip... and has even been stepping this up by the day”.
Israel would later allow a daily three-hour truce during the
offensive to enable aid to flow through a humanitarian corridor.
• She declared that the 2009 Gaza military offensive had
"restored Israel's deterrence ... Hamas now understands that
when you fire on its citizens it responds by going wild and this is
a good thing."
9. 9
LIEUTENANT COLONEL
DAVID BENJAMIN
• Jewish South African by birth.
• Studied law in SA.
• Worked for IDF for the past 17 years.
• Served in Israeli Military Advocates Corps as a legal advisor
during Operation Cast Lead..
• Was in SA during August 2009.
• Addressed Limmud Conventions at various venues around SA
• Reported to have said: ‘the Gaza campaign was a long time in
the works and we were intimately involved in the planning.’/ ‘
approval of targets which can be attacked, methods of warfare -
it all has gone through us.’
• Thus should be investigated for crimes.
10. 10
PROF. JOHN DUGARD
• A South African professor of international law. He has served as
a judge ad hoc on the International Court of Justice and as a
Special Rapporteur for both the former UN Commission on
Human Rights and the International Law Commission.
• “For 40 years of the political organs of the UN states and
individuals have accused Israel of consistent , systematic and
gross violation of human rights and humanitarian law in the
occupied Palestinian territories. In 2004 the judicial organ of the
UN in its advisory opinion, affirmed that Israel’s actions in then
occupied territory, do indeed violate fundamental norms of
human rights and humanitarian law and cannot be justified of
grounds of self defences or necessity.”
11. 11
PROVISIONS OF SCHEDULE 1 OF
ICC ACT 27 OF 2002
1. CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY:
-includes the systematic attacks on civilian populations based on
racial, ethnic, political,religious or gender intentionally causing
mental and physical suffering
-the crime of apartheid.
2. WAR CRIMES:
- willful killing, torture, injury not justified by military necessity
-intentionally attacking units or vehicles involved in humanitarian
assistance or peace keeping missions.
-attacking undefended homes and villages which are not
military objectives
12. 12
OUR TEAM AT THE INTERNATIONAL
CRIMINAL COURT
• The first time an African state has indicted a non-African state
for war crimes.
• Professor John Dugard settled the Gaza Docket and secured an
invite from ICC for the Applicants’ legal team to meet the Chief
Public Prosecutor, Mr Luis Moreno Ocampo.
• The mission found;
– Israel violated international humanitarian law
– The IDF committed war crimes
– Israel committed possible crimes against humanity
– Israel used white phosphorus and high explosive artillery shells
Israel deliberately attacked civilian
– Israel’s disproportionate use of force to deliberately punish ,
humiliate and terrorise the civilian population.
13. 13
POINTS TO CONSIDER
• Israel refused to cooperate with the Fact Finding
Mission.
• Israel refused the mission entry into Israel and the
West Bank.
• Therefore the meetings had sittings in Geneva to
allow all parties the opportunity to address the
mission.
• A coalition of 350 European and Arab civil society
organisations has filed a lawsuit with the ICC against
Israel over war crimes in Gaza.
