Ugandan judge says ICJ should stay out of Israel’s ‘political’ conflict with Hamas

‘South Africa has not demonstrated… that the acts allegedly committed by Israel … were committed with the necessary genocidal intent.’

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Ugandan Judge Julia Sebutinde, who voted against all six measures imposed on Israel by the International Court of Justice Friday, said that the world court should not be ruling on the Israel-Hamas war because it is a “political” conflict.

Judge Sebutinde was the judge out of 17 at the International Court of Justice at The Hague to vote against all six measures imposed on Israel to prevent genocide, whereas Aharon Barak, former head of Israel’s Supreme Court, agreed that Israel should submit to two of the six measures.

In her dissenting opinion, Sebutinde wrote, “The controversy or dispute between the State of Israel and the people of Palestine is essentially and historically a political or territorial (and, dare I say, ideological) one.”

She added that the dispute “calls not only for a diplomatic or negotiated settlement but also for the implementation in good faith of all relevant Security Council resolutions by all parties concerned, with a view to finding a permanent solution whereby the Israeli and Palestinian peoples can peacefully coexist.”

Sebutinde continued, “South Africa has not demonstrated, even on a prima facie basis, that the acts allegedly committed by Israel … were committed with the necessary genocidal intent and that, as a result, they are capable of falling within the scope of the Genocide Convention.”

United Nations Ambassador from Uganda, Adonia Ayebare, sought to distance himself and Uganda from Sebutinde’s dissenting ruling which he said “does not represent the government of Uganda’s position on the situation in Palestine.”

Born in Entebbe in 1954, Julia Sebutinde is the first African to serve on the International Court of Justice.

She was appointed in 2012 and was re-elected in 2021.

Before serving as a judge at the ICJ, she presided at Uganda’s high court from 1996 during which she prosecuted many corruption cases involving the military and the government.

Sebutinde was chief judge at the trial of Charles Taylor, the brutal Liberian dictator who was convicted on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2012, the first head of state to be convicted of these crimes since the end of World War II.