Speaking at the International Court of Justice on Feb. 22, Reza Najafi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, accused the Israelis of apartheid and genocide. After outlining how a Jewish colony was established in Palestine by the forceful displacement of Arabs who lived in the area, Najafi listed the Israeli occupiers’ ongoing violations: prolonged occupation, alteration of the demographic composition in the occupied territories, alteration of the character and the status of the Holy City, and discriminatory measures and violations of the rights of Palestinian people to permanent sovereignty over their natural resources.
He said that “the expansion of settlements, segregated roads and barriers as well as checkpoints has created a system of apartheid which is isolating Palestinian communities,” and blamed “the inaction or insufficient action of the Security Council” as one of the “main causes of prolonged occupation of the Palestinians.” He said that a resolution to the conflict had been “paralyzed due to the stalemate” caused by a “certain permanent member.”
Hayder Shiya Al-Barrak, Ambassador and head of the legal department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iraq, meanwhile called on the ICJ to stop the “systematic killing machine” against the Palestinian people and put an end to the “mass murder” and “genocide.” Al-Barrak spoke about Israel’s “barbaric acts,” including airstrikes and “rocket attacks targeting civilians.” “These constitute war crimes executed with a criminal intent,” he said, saying that “Israel must be held accountable.”
