Trudeau government rejects 'genocide' allegations against Israel at UN court
In a statement Friday afternoon, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said the evidence of the case had not met the threshold to substantiate a genocide allegation
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OTTAWA – Canada has dismissed South Africa’s “premise” that Israel is committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip, while promising to follow the proceedings at the United Nations’ top court “very closely.”
Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly issued a statement on the genocide allegation Friday afternoon, saying the evidence of the case had not met the threshold to substantiate a genocide allegation.
Speaking in Guelph, Ont. earlier in the day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada believes in the importance of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as an institution but that does not mean that it supports South Africa’s claim that Israel’s actions are aimed to bring about “the destruction of the population” of Gaza.
“Our wholehearted support of the ICJ and its processes does not mean that we support the premise of the case brought forward by South Africa,” he told reporters.
Canada was initially expected to declare its position on Thursday as hearings began in The Hague, but the government was apparently sidetracked by other pressing international events, such as the U.S.-led strikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, which Canada supported.
Joly’s statement Friday afternoon echoed Trudeau’s comments.
“Under the UN’s 1948 Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide requires the intention to destroy or partly destroy a group because of their nationality, ethnicity, race or religion. Meeting this high threshold requires compelling evidence,” the statement said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre criticized Trudeau on Friday for maintaining an unclear position on the claim against Israel, while Liberal MPs have been divided on the issue, with varying statements calling on Canada to either support or reject the accusations.
“This is the cynical Liberal strategy to say one thing to one group of voters and an entirely different thing to another group of voters…. while trying to have it both ways,” Poilievre said.
Poilievre said he is taking a “clear stand based on moral clarity” and said in no uncertain terms that a Conservative government would have rejected South Africa’s claims.
“This is not about genocide,” he said in a press conference in Winnipeg on Friday morning. “It is about shamelessly and dishonestly attacking the Jewish people and the Jewish State, and the Conservative Party stands against this dishonest approach.”
South Africa has argued to the United Nations’ top court that Israel has a “genocidal intent” in its military operations in Gaza. The country launched its war after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack, in which terrorists killed more than 1,200 people and took 240 hostages back to the Hamas-run territory.
Israel has rejected the genocide accusations as baseless and “grossly distorted,” maintaining that that it is fighting Hamas, not the Palestinian population.
South Africa is now requesting that the ICJ order an emergency suspension of Israel’s offensive, and the court is expected to rule later this month on the request. But the proceedings on accusations of genocide against Israel could take years.
South Africa’s case has been supported by about a dozen countries, including Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Iran and Malaysia, whereas the United States has slammed the prosecution as meritless and counterproductive and the U.K. has described it as unhelpful.
Poilievre said he finds it “incredible” that the countries in support of South Africa have not accused Hamas of genocide, considering that its goal is to destroy Israel and is “backed by the Iranian government which seeks to annihilate the entire Jewish people,” he said.
“Why are they not bringing a case against China for its persecution of the Uyghur Muslims who are in concentration camps in that country? Why are they not going after (Syria’s) Bashar al-Assad who’s been carrying out a genocide against Sunni Muslims in that country?”
Trudeau said Canada has been a “tremendous supporter of the international rules-based order” as well as “the processes and structures that have been put in place over the past decades to be able to actually ensure that international law is respected and enforced.”
He added that the ICJ is a “key part of that” and that Canada is engaged in at least five different cases at the court because it believes in its importance “as an institution.”
Joly said Canada continues to “strongly and unequivocally condemn Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel” while also remaining “deeply concerned by the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and ongoing risks to all Palestinian civilians.”
