JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Israeli political analyst Yoav Limor wrote in the Yisrael Hayom newspaper that “The decision to send former Chief Justice Aharon Barak to represent Israel at The Hague’s International Court of Justice is nothing short of dramatic. It underscores the extent of the legal and public relations problem the country is in, prompting the government to ask one of its greatest detractors to represent it in the hearing.
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Limor claims that the hearing “may be the most dangerous hearing Israel has ever faced. It takes place at the International Court of Justice in The Hague (not the International Criminal Court), based on the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Israel has of course signed this convention, which has its roots in World War II and the Holocaust, as well as the article that allows any country to sue even if it is not a direct party to the conflict – as South Africa has done. This is also why Israel is participating in the hearing and not boycotting it, as it has done in the past regarding hearings in the International Criminal Court.
“The court hears petitions in a full panel of 15 judges from different countries. The hearings themselves last for years, but South Africa also requested a temporary restraining order – calling on Israel to stop fighting immediately. The chances of success for such a request are unclear, and the court can also hand down a more lenient ruling instructing Israel to stop actions that endanger civilians, which has the same practical meaning.
“Such an order has no direct bearing on Israel, but it could have some countries cite it at the Security Council in their effort to impose military and economic sanctions on Israel. It is also likely that various countries and organizations will see it as confirmation that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians and use it as a pretext to sever political and economic ties.
Limor concludes that “This is a dangerous snowball that will certainly be exploited by Israel’s enemies in various media and on campuses to create anti-Israeli public opinion. There is a real concern that such pressure could even influence the Biden administration to the point that it restricts sales of weapon systems to Israel and that it could also lead to an investigation in the ICC that could culminate with the prosecution of Israeli leaders and IDF officers involved in the fighting.”
This, says, Limor, is the reason that the government approved sending Aharon Barak, despite his antipathy to the current leadership, to represent Israel. He cites three positive reasons for this: Firstly, Barak is a brilliant jurist who will know how to represent Israel better than anyone else. Second, he enjoys recognition and appreciation in the international judicial system that no other Israeli has. And third, the profound disagreement he has with the government and its leader shows that everyone in Israel is behind him and that this issue does not belong to any part of the political divide.
Barak’s challenge will not be simple. South Africa has prepared a serious indictment, relying in part on a host of irresponsible statements by Israeli public figures who called to destroy, demolish, crush or depopulate Gaza.
Israel will argue that these things do not represent its official position, but it will need more: for example, unequivocal clarifications from the prime minister that the proposals to expel Gazans were made without the sanctioning of the government. The US has insisted that the prime minister do this after Israel enlisted its help to fend off the intense effort against it at The Hague.
Israel can also demonstrate its care for Gazan civilians, creating humanitarian corridors, preventing firing on terrorists with human shields, fostering lost Gazan children and distributing leaflets calling on them to relocate so they will not be caught in crossfire.
Yet there is another far more profound reason for sending Aharon Barak to the Hague and that is his chilling personal biography. Barak is one of a handful of child survivors of the Kovno ghetto, who as a child witnessed the Nazi genocide firsthand. Barak saw his peers going to their slaughter, with all Jews being indiscriminately targeted for annihilation. There can be no greater defender of Israel from spurious claims of genocide than one who saw genocide happen with his own eyes and almost became a victim of it himself. The irony is bitter: a Holocaust survivor will be forced to defend Israel against charges of instigating a holocaust – just 80 years after a third of the Jewish nation was wiped out in the greatest cataclysm in history.
The world will alway condemn Israel and here won’t be any different. Israel should do what it must which is wipr out get the hostages back and wipe out Hamas and the rest of world can pound sand.
Aharon Barak should be considered a persona non grata in the Jewish world. I think it’s perfectly permissible to slander the man, as he clearly falls into the category of יוצא מכלל עמיתך. When Dovid Hamelech wrote משנא ה’ אשנא, he was clearly inspired by Aharon Barak. I’m not blind to the irony of one of Israel’s greatest dividers suddenly coming to its defence, but let’s not ignore who this man is, what he stands for, and why we should be hesitant to stand behind him.
Forgetting the political turmoil Israel is currently fighting, this poor excuse for a human being, has single handedly created an environment in Israel that is hostile to any of our millenia-based traditions. He has pushed progressive values – which are contentious to Torah values at their core – and has stoked intolerance of anything Jewish throughout the nation. That this person “survived the Kovno Ghetto” only shows the depravity a Jew, who has distanced himself from his creator can go.
He’s the man who brought about the extreme leftist ideology to the Supreme NOT court. He is no friend of the Jewish people! He wants Israel to look like Times Square.