Belgium must go to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to investigate whether Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter in a tweet on Tuesday. Pending a ruling, her Green party is calling for provisional measures. CD&V is also in favor of such a study.
“Belgium cannot continue to monitor what is happening in Gaza. It’s looking more and more like genocide. And that is why I want our country, like South Africa, to go to the International Court of Justice. I put that on the table within the government,” De Sutter notes on X.
According to co-chair Nadia Naji and parliamentary faction leader Wouter De Vriendt, there are sufficient reasons to start an investigation. They call the human rights situation in Gaza “more than dramatic”.
“Human animals”
“Food, medicine and other supplies to Gaza are being blocked and Palestinians are being systematically and purposefully expelled from their homes. Israeli regime officials refer to Palestinians as ‘human animals’, announce ‘hell’ and say they will eliminate everything,” said Naji and De Vriendt.
LOOK. Flemish-Palestinian testifies from Gaza: “Stop this genocide”
According to Naji, Belgium has always defended human rights and international law during the conflict and our country must continue to do so. But the Green co-chairman would like to go one step further. “The federal government should request that the International Court of Justice impose interim measures as soon as possible pending a final ruling. Only in this way can further irreparable damage and human suffering be prevented,” it said.
CD&V: “Extremely charged”
“This conflict is extremely charged, so it is very important to judge based on facts,” adds Els Van Hoof (CD&V), chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs. “As an independent body, the International Court of Justice is best placed to investigate the risk of genocide.”
“The situation in Gaza is nothing short of dire and incredibly worrying. 23,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks. More than 85 percent of residents have been expelled from their homes by order of the Israeli army. Water, food, medicine, fuel,… Taking basic needs away from a captive population, something like that meets the criteria to speak of genocide,” Van Hoof concludes.
Also read: “If Iran were to get involved in war with Israel, we would be left with a scenario that I don’t want to think about,” says Middle East expert (+)
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