The Picture of a Genocidaire: A Comparative Political Approach

On December 29th, 2023, South Africa opened a case of Genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in response to the state of Israel’s destruction of the Palestinian territory of Gaza. The Israeli Government would label the charge as baseless despite overwhelming evidence that civilians have been targeted on purpose. As the evidence mounted, various accusations of crimes against humanity and war crimes were levelled at Israel. In this study, the author sought to examine how one may prove the accusation of genocide; an extremely difficult task, especially in a conflict riddled with ethnic and religious divisions, superpower geopolitics, high and often misconstrued media coverage, as well as international legal jurisprudence, which is heavily politicized. In most cases, the passage of time determines whether scholars certify an event as genocide. In this research, the author deploys a comparative political methodology to ascertain, through historical examples, if Israel’s war on Gaza constitutes genocide. Overall, the author reveals that proving genocide is fraught with difficulties; however, there are similar behaviours and traits that a genocidaire deploys, which will ultimately show that South Africa’s case of genocide is credible, with merit, and valid. The research contributes to decolonial theory by shifting the voice of reason from the monopoly of the West to the Global South.