Right, so South Africa has stomped back into the World Court, brandishing a big fat new dossier and accusing Israel of treating those three binding orders the court had imposed like so much junk mail that’s come through your door that you shove straight in the bin without reading: stop genocidal acts and incitement, let aid into Gaza, and maybe don’t flatten Rafah while you’re at it.
And as if Netanyahu wasn’t already sweating through his suit, Israel’s suppliers might soon find themselves yanked into the dock right alongside him, kicking and screaming or not.
And there he is, basking in his own adulation like a radioactive satsuma.
The head of Israel’s biggest supplier, generously reminding the world that Israel is basically propped up by his own two undersized hands.
Now Trump meant that as a flex, obviously. Look at me, look what I built, look how the universe would collapse if I ever took a day off.
But when South Africa has continued to busy itself compiling all those receipts for what Israel has kept doing after three binding World Court orders, and you have Donald J Trump bragging on camera that Israel depends on US weapons, cash and political cover, he is basically volunteering himself as Exhibit A.
Now, before we get too far ahead of ourselves and start measuring Trump up for those prison overalls, South Africa hasn’t personally put him on trial. We are talking about the International Court of Justice here, not the International Criminal Court, though you can argue that perhaps this is why his administration seems so fixated on tearing the ICC down.
The International Court of Justice hears cases between states. Israel is the state being taken to court here. The United States isn’t part of this case and Donald Trump hasn’t received a summons - at least not yet, though being the head of state, he would receive any such summons as the head of state though.
What South Africa says it submitted on 25 August is a substantial new dossier in addition to the case they brought in January 2024 for the committee of judges monitoring Israel’s compliance with the Court’s provisional measures.
Those are the emergency protections the Court ordered while the main genocide case is still being decided, the ones we know Israel has just blatantly ignored.
There have been three sets, and they’re binding, but Israel has decided the rules of mere mortals aren’t for the chosen ones.
South Africa says Israel hasn’t complied and that this has undermined the very protections the Court put in place for Palestinians in Gaza.
The Court hasn’t yet come back with a fresh ruling saying yes, Israel breached those orders, and the final decision on whether Israel committed genocide hasn’t arrived either.
It does not, however, make the orders meaningless, which is how Israel’s defenders increasingly seem to treat them.
Provisional measures exist because waiting for the final judgment could make the whole case pointless, especially when such cases take literally years, we’re already more than two and half years on from South Africa’s original case, and we’ve got no verdict yet. If the people the Court has been asked to protect have already been destroyed by the time the judges finish deliberating though, justice has turned up rather late, hasn’t it? So South Africa have been, proactive lets say.
A ceasefire.
Three hundred days. Three hundred dead children.
Clearly, someone’s using a very creative definition of ‘ceasefire’ here aren’t they? The kind where the firing just takes a quick tea break and then carries right on. You cease, we fire, it might as well be Israel’s motto.
Now, the dossier was submitted privately to the judges because it forms part of that ongoing case, so its contents haven’t been published and so neither side gets to argue the evidence through the media.
What it purports to show however, is how badly the supposed protections have failed the people they were meant to protect and considering everything we’ve witnessed in the intervening years, considering what we are still witnessing, well, you just get a feeling the South Africans have got no shortage of evidence in their dossier don’t you?
These children certainly weren’t killed before anyone realised Gaza might be in danger were they? They were killed after the warnings had started pouring in. After the first Court order, after the second and after the third. After repeated reports about bombardment, starvation, displacement and aid being obstructed.
So when Israel’s suppliers say they couldn’t possibly know what their support might be enabling, how many warnings do they require?
Do they need the warnings laminated, gift-wrapped, and delivered by a tap-dancing singing telegram?
Maybe someone could slip one into a bright red folder marked ‘IMPORTANT: READ BEFORE SENDING MORE BOMBS’, just in case the message keeps getting lost, because this is what the dossier changes, it adds to the record of what Israel is alleged to have done after it had already been told, in binding terms, to protect Palestinian rights.
The more evidence and warnings enter that record, the harder it becomes for everybody involved to insist they knew nothing about the danger.
So let’s have a look back. Since January 2024, more receipts have been collected in this case than a compulsive Amazon shopper. South Africa isn't merely yelling into the void. Israel, ever helpful, has practically handed over the evidence-not by accidentally blurting out a confession, unfortunately. After all, they have lawyers. But their public statements and actions have very much done their job for them.
The first order told Israel to prevent the commission of acts covered by the Genocide Convention, to stop and punish any direct incitement to such acts, to preserve evidence, and to allow urgently needed assistance into Gaza.
South Africa’s case had referred to certain public pronouncements of the Israeli cabinet and other officials, as well as the course of its war, as evidence of genocidal intent and actions. Israel, of course, rejected this argument, saying that it was acting in accordance with the law and in self-defence.
But that is why this order was so important. Once the Court had told Israel to prevent genocidal acts, stop incitement and preserve evidence, every further statement by a minister, every decision taken by the armed forces, every restriction of assistance was something that could be compared to those obligations.
But in March the court intervened again, as the humanitarian situation had become even more serious. Israel was ordered to ensure, without delay, the unhindered delivery at scale of food, water, fuel, medicine, and other necessities, and to increase the number and capacity of land crossings.
Israel likes to talk about facilitating aid and coordinating access, which is all very nice. But you can't play the role of gatekeeper and then, when medicine and food disappear, suddenly become an innocent bystander. You either rule or you don’t, and you don't get to hold the keys and act amazed when people point out that the cupboards are empty.
And then came Rafah.
In May, at a time when Israel had launched an open offensive in Rafah and taken over the crossing, the Court ordered Israel to stop its military action, and to cease all other measures which could result in the imposition of living conditions which might lead to the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza. It also ordered that the Rafah crossing be left open to enable unhindered assistance and for access for investigators.
South Africa says it did not. Israel says it obeyed. Somehow Rafah got flattened of course, but Israel still claims it obeyed.
The court has not yet ruled on this dispute, but the demolished houses, the blocked supplies and the grim reality in Gaza are not South Africa's imagination, but an accurate reality that is weighed against the court's orders. It's Israel's handiwork, they’ve provided ample evidence I would imagine.
So this new dossier is delightfully awkward for Israel. The judges are given a list of what Israel has been asked to cease doing and must determine how far those prohibitions have been disregarded.
Again, the monitoring committee must now examine that material. We cannot skip ahead and announce what the judges will decide, they will report in due course.
But Israel has still been forced back into the frame.
Every allegation must now be considered alongside the orders already in force when the conduct allegedly happened.
For Netanyahu’s government, that’s another account of its decisions being handed to the judges.
For the IDF, it means military conduct can be compared with obligations Israel had already been given.
And for Israeli diplomats, it means going back out to explain why South Africa has returned with another substantial pile of information alleging that Israel carried on regardless.
That is more than embarrassment. Israel relies on other countries for weapons, trade, intelligence and diplomatic protection. The more its conduct is documented against binding orders, the more pressure falls upon the governments providing all of that.
Which brings us neatly back to President Humility himself, the man who never met a mirror he didn’t like.
Trump made his “without me there would be no Israel” remark during his row with Netanyahu over Lebanon.
But what he said about American power over Israel is extremely relevant now.
Trump is claiming that Israel depends upon the United States and, because this is Trump we’re talking about, that Israel depends especially upon all of his tangerine wonderfulness.
Nobody else would do what he did. Nobody else was quite orange enough. Or brave enough. Or, let’s be honest, delusional enough.
But sure, whatever helps him sleep at night-probably on a pillow stuffed with all those dodgy commemorative coins with his face on them.
The point is that he is presenting American support as indispensable. Without it, by his own account, Israel cannot survive.
And that support is enormous.
Weapons, money, intelligence, diplomatic cover, Security Council vetoes and all the political muscle Washington can throw around whenever Israel finds itself under pressure.
That’s Trump’s big investment, as he never tires of reminding us.
He expected a return, of course: loyalty from Netanyahu, influence over Israel, political credit at home, and maybe another tacky commemorative coin with his face stamped on it for good measure. Well, Iran has certainly put paid to those delusions as his polling shows.
But there’s a slight snag when you insist you built the whole thing yourself: eventually, people might start asking what else you helped build.
Eventually, people might start asking what else you made possible-and in line with what this dossier could contain given Trump’s admissions? Hmm might be a bit awkward, that.
If Washington has the power Trump claims, why wasn’t it used to condition American weapons, funding and diplomatic protection on Israel complying with the Court’s orders? Instead, US policy kept the support flowing while insisting Israel made its own decisions. Washington didn’t lack leverage. It simply chose not to use it to protect Palestinians.
Why did American weapons and protection continue while South Africa says those orders were being ignored?
And that’s the corner Trump has now put himself in.
Washington’s usual line is that Israel is a sovereign country making its own decisions and America cannot simply dictate what Netanyahu does.
Trump’s line is that Israel wouldn’t exist without him.
You can’t have both excuses at once, no matter how many times you say it can you?
Either America has enormous influence over Israel and just couldn’t be bothered to use it, or Trump’s speech was just another serving of deep-fried nonsense with a heaping side of self-importance.
None of that automatically proves American complicity in genocide.
Supplying Israel doesn’t produce an instant guilty verdict. A separate case would need evidence, a proper legal dispute and a court with jurisdiction to hear it. I know that strips the emotional side out of it because by God do you want someone to pay for what we’ve witnessed, but due process is due process.
The difficult questions however, would concern what the supplier knew, what its assistance contributed and what it could reasonably have done once the risk was known and Trump’s role in all of this is key, because he isn’t just some noisy bloke with a social-media account and an unhealthy relationship with capital letters.
He is the president of the United States.
His administration makes American policy. It approves support, authorises transfers and decides what diplomatic protection Israel receives.
At the ICJ, though, any case would be against the United States as a state. The Court cannot put Trump on trial personally.
If anybody ever sought to establish his individual criminal responsibility, that would require a different court, a different legal route and actual evidence tying his decisions to specific crimes. Should that relate to an ICC member state such as Palestine directly, as in the case of Benjamin Netanyahu and the former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, well you can perhaps see what the US has it in for the ICC so badly. It’s all about jurisdiction. That’s for a separate case on a separate day though, not South Africa’s. It’s certainly not the only legal avenue that could be made available.
So, anyway, South Africa hasn’t filed a case against Donald Trump.
What it may have done is make the conduct of the state he leads more difficult to separate from the conduct America continued supporting.
There is an extra complication here too, because when America ratified the Genocide Convention, it entered a reservation saying that any dispute involving it requires specific American consent before it can be submitted to the ICJ under Article Nine.
In other words, America must effectively agree to be taken to court.
How very sporting of them.
Several countries objected, but that reservation remains a barrier to dragging the United States directly before the ICJ under the Convention.
It doesn’t wipe away America’s legal obligations. Nor does it block every possible domestic or international challenge to American policy.
It does mean that “Trump goes on trial at the ICJ next Tuesday” would be complete rubbish.
But the reservation does not make America legally untouchable.
For a start, Article Eight of the Genocide Convention still allows any state party to call on United Nations bodies to act to prevent and punish genocide. Washington can block plenty at the Security Council with its veto, but it cannot stop the legal and political question being taken to the General Assembly, UN investigators, human-rights mechanisms and other international forums.
Other Western states don’t all have the same reservation, though. Their legal positions vary, which is where the possibility of the exposure spreading becomes rather more interesting.
Ralph Wilde is talking there about the legal consequences of the ICJ’s separate advisory opinion on Israel’s unlawful occupation.
That is not the same proceeding as South Africa’s genocide case, and Wilde is interpreting what the opinion requires. He isn’t reading out a new judgment finding Britain guilty of complicity.
But listen to how far his argument goes.
Full-spectrum sanctions. Positive steps to bring the unlawful presence to an end. Not another statement from the Foreign Office about ministers being ‘deeply concerned’. That phrase is so overused it should be painted on the side of every plane shipping out the weapons.
The argument is that other states have to do something and they face more shame the longer they fail to do so.
That is where a material consequence could land upon Israel.
Israel’s economy, military and diplomatic position are tied to support from other countries. Trump has more or less stood up and shouted this from the nearest available rooftop.
If legal pressure begins forcing those relationships to contract, Israel doesn’t merely suffer bad publicity. It loses the legitimacy that allows Netanyahu to continue, assuming he does past next months elections anyway.
This is why the Western response is always so carefully buried in process though.
Ministers say arms licences are continually reviewed.
They say assurances have been received.
They say the genocide case is ongoing, so it would be wrong to conclude.
They are forever waiting for the next report, the next assessment or the next judgment.
Anything to keep the support and supplies flowing while responsibility is always conveniently six months down the road.
But a final genocide judgment is not the only legal issue here, and the absence of one isn’t an excuse to do nothing.
The provisional measures are already binding.
The occupation has been found unlawful in a separate case.
Other states have their own duties.
South Africa’s dossier potentially adds more information about what Israel was doing while all of those warnings and obligations were already sitting on ministers’ desks.
Again, Wilde is setting out his legal argument there based on the unlawful occupation. This isn’t a verdict against Britain or America.
But it goes well beyond asking whether one particular weapon might be used in one particular attack.
His position is that support sustains the unlawful situation as a whole.
Put that beside the new South African dossier.
Israel is accused of ignoring three binding protective orders. Its conduct is being documented for the judges monitoring compliance. Meanwhile, the governments supplying Israel are being told that their obligations may require far more than checking where the occasional bomb ends up.
Then Trump wanders in and blurts out that Israel wouldn’t exist without American support, without him as President.
It might not technically be a confession but it bloody should be.
It is, however, a spectacularly unhelpful thing for the head of Israel’s largest supplier to say when the entire argument is shifting towards what supplier governments knew and what they could have stopped.
Trump wanted to be personally associated with Israel.
He wanted the praise for protecting it, supplying it and making it above and beyond reproach.
Well, you don’t get to claim all of the credit when the investment looks good and suddenly become a distant minority shareholder when the legal questions arrive.
His own words have put him in the frame.
Not as a defendant in South Africa’s case, but as the president directing the policy of the state he says Israel cannot survive without.
That’s the turn.
The support Trump treated like his personal investment portfolio may now be part of the reason Washington is finding it harder to keep up the act. There’s no prize for Little Donnie here this time, no win for you, ya big orange loser.
That is what all of this is supposed to be protecting most of all though isn’t it?
Not America’s reputation.
Not Netanyahu’s political career.
Not the profits of arms companies or the collective dignity of Western foreign ministers who would prefer nobody look too closely at what they signed.
Palestinian lives matter.
South Africa’s dossier doesn’t put Trump in the dock tomorrow, but it could support tougher action against Israel, strengthen demands for sanctions and arms embargoes, and deepen Israel’s diplomatic isolation. For supplier governments, be they suppliers of material goods or diplomatic support, it adds to the record of what they knew, making arms licences, intelligence sharing and diplomatic protection more vulnerable to court challenges and allegations of complicity, from an array of legal routes. Here’s hoping we finally see some more of that, and certainly we should keep an eye on this case and make sure our leaders know about it if it, as I strongly suspect it will, hope it will, go heavily against Israel and those supporting this ongoing genocide.
For more eviscerations of the citrus skinned sociopath and the blue and white apartheid state, go no further, plenty more on this channel for your next watch, how about this recommendation right here.
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