The UN judges’ ruling on genocide is deeply damaging to Israel’s reputation

Editorial: Benjamin Netanyahu must not take the ruling by the UN’s International Court of Justice lightly. To wilfully ignore the findings would make Israel’s baleful position even worse

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister since 2022, his third stint in the role (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Whatever view is taken of the merits of the allegations of genocide, the interim judgment by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel is, objectively, a disaster for the country.

Israel has, in effect, been told it has a case to answer for genocide – the crime of crimes. Poignantly, it has happened on the eve of International Holocaust Memorial Day. The reputation of Israel thus, inevitably, carries a grievous stain, despite its protestations.

Now, every time an Israeli minister, spokesperson or diplomat appears in public, or at a private meeting with their counterparts, they will have to contend with the jarring charge of genocide. The charge is, moreover, not one casually levelled by some extremist Islamist faction or antisemitic Western politician but by the international community’s highest court, delivered in sober and measured terms, citing relevant evidence. It can’t be lightly dismissed.