Ireland must persuade EU and US to implement court's ruling if genocide in Gaza is proven

South Africa is the ideal country to take the case against the State of Israel which it accuses of committing genocide in its campaign against Hamas in Gaza

The level of destruction in Gaza is now almost unbelievable with perhaps up to 30,000 killed, of whom as many as 10,000 are children. File photo: AP/Fatima Shbair

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was agreed by all the countries of the United Nations in 1948 and is universally applicable. 

It was conceived as a response to the racial crimes committed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, in particular the Holocaust which resulted in the extermination of most of Europe’s Jewish population. The Convention defines the crime of genocide as the destruction of — or the intent to physically destroy — any national, ethnic, racial or religious group.