Israel president due to visit London next week was singled out over remarks blaming all Palestinians for Hamas attack
A few months into Israel’s brutal campaign in Gaza, International Court of Justice judgessat down to write their reply to South Africa’s complaint that Israel was pursuing genocide.
Supporting that ruling, the judges listed a series of statements made by senior Israeli officials, underpinning the claim by Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UN’s main Palestinian agency, UNRWA, that the crisis in Gaza was being “compounded by dehumanising language”.
Second in that list of statements was a comment made by Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, in which he asserted that all Palestinians in Gaza were “unequivocally” responsible for the Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October.
“The entire [Palestinian] nation out there that is responsible,” said Herzog. “It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved.”
