International Criminal Court Did Not Rule Israel Committed Genocide, Judge Says

The former President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), who, serving as a judge, gave the preliminary ruling in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, took issue with the media claiming the International Criminal Court (ICC) had accused Israel of genocide, saying, “I’m correcting what’s often said in the media.” The ICJ is the principal judicial entity of the United Nations.

Judge Joan Donoghue appeared on the BBC’s “HARDtalk” with host Stephen Sackur.

“Would it be fair to say, and I’m no lawyer, and many people watching and listening will not be lawyers, but would it be fair to say that the key point that you made your initial order and ruling upon, was whether or not there was a plausible case that should be taken on by the court of genocide in the case of Israel’s actions in Gaza after October 7, and you quite clearly decided that there was a plausible case?” Sackur asked. “Is it right to say that’s at heart what you decided?”

Contending directly with Sackur’s supposition, Donoghue replied, “You know, I’m glad I have a chance to address that because the court’s test for deciding whether to impose measures uses the idea of plausibility, but the test is the plausibility of the rights that are asserted by the applicant, in this case, South Africa. So the Court decided that the Palestinians have the plausible right to be protected from genocide and that South Africa had the right to present that claim in the Court.”

“It then looked at the facts as well, but it did not decide — and this is something where I’m correcting what’s often said in the media — it didn’t decide that the claim of genocide was plausible,” she continued. “It did emphasize in the order that there was a risk of irreparable harm to the Palestinian right to be protected from genocide, but the shorthand that often appears — which is there’s a plausible case of genocide —  isn’t what the court decided.”

The president of the ICJ stated unequivocally that the ICJ did NOT find that there was a Genocide in Gaza.

She even specified that there is not even a “plausible” genocide.

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— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) July 10, 2025

Left-wing groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, among others, have launched the claim that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

“International law is clear on the need for ‘specific intent’ to accompany any acts falling within the actus reus of the crime of genocide, that is the intent to destroy in whole or in part one of the protected groups, as such,” the European Journal of International Law, arguing against the claim of genocide by Israel, stated. “Simply intending to kill or to otherwise harm individual members of that group would not be sufficient to reach this very high threshold of intent.”

The Journal continued:

With respect to humanitarian aid, despite initial statements to the contrary, Israel later on allowed humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip during its military operation, clarifying that its main concern after the 7 October 2023 attacks was that the aid would end up in the hands of Hamas. It has also taken steps to prevent harm to the civilian Palestinian population, including by: (i) encouraging civilians to move out of the line of fire through disseminating fliers, publishing information online, making thousands of individual phone calls, and communicating instructions and directions in Arabic via radio and other forms of media to guide Gazans to safer areas (see here); (ii) holding fire to enable Gazans to safely move through humanitarian corridors (see here); (iii) delivering incubators, baby food and medical supplies to Al-Shifa Hospital during a raid (see here); and (iv) carrying out assessments and verifications that any strikes are directed at military targets.