Israel to Pursue Genocide Case Against Iran’s Regime with ICJ

On Monday, an Israeli cabinet minister announced plans to begin efforts to bring charges of genocide against the Islamic Republic of Iran to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Gideon Moshe Sa'ar, an Israeli politician who served as Minister of Justice between 2021 and 2022, highlighted that the leadership of the regime in Tehran has openly called for the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel, providing immense support to Hamas and other Islamic terrorist proxies in the Middle East region that were responsible for the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.

"Iranian leaders have been making genocidal statements for years, with impunity," said Eugene Kontorovich, Professor of Law at George Mason University and Director of Scalia Law School's Center for the Middle East and International Law to The Foreign Desk.

"There are public statements by senior Iranian officials in favor of destroying Israel," Sa'ar told the Kan public broadcaster. "Iran finances, arms, and trains all the jihadi terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which carried out Oct. 7, so in my opinion, there is an abundance of evidence which can be submitted to the court in the Hague," he added.

Knesset member Sa’ar noted that the Jewish state is a small and persecuted nation that is fighting for its life while "fighting on the international stage for its right to self-defense."

"It is a nation that is truly at risk of genocide given that there are enemies around it that declaredly want to destroy it," Sa'ar told Kan.

"The State of Israel, a liberal democracy fighting against the most heinous act of mass terror perpetrated against the Jewish state, should never have been in the dock of the accused at The Hague in the first place," said Arsen Ostrovsky, human rights attorney and CEO of the Israel-based NGO International Legal Forum, a global network of pro-Israel lawyers combating antisemitism and terror, who was also present in The Hague, for the hearings against Israel.

"If anyone ought to have been on trial at the ICJ, it was Hamas and their genocidal sponsors, the Islamic Republic of Iran, which remain open about their intentions of annihilating the Jewish state and supporting Hamas," he said to The Foreign Desk.

Following the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas against Israel, Tehran has called upon its proxies in the Middle East region to assist Hamas and attack American and Israeli troops. In Lebanon, Tehran has provided support to the Shiite Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah to attack Israel and the Houthi-backed terrorist organizations in Yemen to attack U.S. Naval and commercial ships.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has also continued its hardline approach towards peaceful Iranian citizens protesting the regime, enacting executions of young Iranian men and women, including the recent case of 23-year-old Mohammad Ghobadlou who was charged with spreading "corruption on earth," for allegedly killing a policeman in anti-government protests following massive protest movements after the death of 22-year-old Masha Amini at the hands of the Iranian Islamic morality police.

"Whereas the case against Israel was a complete perversion of justice, a claim of genocide against Iran would actually be a proper and long overdue application of the Genocide Convention," Ostrovsky told The Foreign Desk.

But according to Kontorovich, the ICJ "should not be mistaken for a genuine institution of international justice - it is a politicized agency of the United Nations and cannot be counted on to punish Iran."