The International Court of Justice: Can Israel Expect To Be Treated Fairly? A careful look at the current 15 justices. Hugh Fitzgerald
The list of the current 15 justices on the International Court of Justice bodes ill for Israel.
Here is that list:
The President of the Court is Nawaf Salam, a Muslim from Lebanon.
The Vice-President is Julia Sebitunde of Uganda. Religion unknown.
Judge Peter Tomka of Slovakia.
Judge Ronny Abraham of France.
Abraham is a native of Egypt, possibly a Copt. He is the author of, inter alia, Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. That title includes the phrase “Occupied Palestinian Territory,” which makes clear where his sympathies lie.
Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf of Somalia. A Muslim.
Judge Xue Hanqin, China.
China is now being swept by an anti-Israel and antisemitic campaign in the media, promoted by the government. Judge Hanqin would not dare to defy the policies of the Chinese government.
Judge Dalveer Bhandari, India. Not a Muslim.
Judge Iwasawa Yuji, Japan.
Judge Georg Nolte, Germany.
Judge Hilary Charlesworth, Australia.
Judge Leonardo Nemer Caldeira Brant, Brazil.
Judge Juan Manuel Gomez Robledo, Mexico.
Judge Sarah H. Cleveland, United States.
Judge Bogdan-Lucian Aurescu, Romania.
Judge Tire Dladi, South Africa.
Both the powerful President of the Court, Nawaf Salam, and at least one other judge, Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf of Somalia, are Muslims and will not look with favor on Israel. Another judge, Tire Dladi, is from South Africa and will undoubtedly uphold the South African charge of “genocide” against Israel. Still another, Ronny Abraham, now a French judge, is a native of Egypt, and though not a Muslim, has written about the security wall built by Israel to separate the Palestinian population in the West Bank from Israeli cities and towns with a palpable want of sympathy for the Jewish state. Another judge, Xue Hanqin, is from China. Unlike the judges from Western countries, she will vote as her country instructs. Right now the government of China is resolutely opposed to Israel, and the Chinese media are now in the midst of an anti-Israel and antisemitic campaign.
That means that of the 15 judges on the ICJ, at least five of them, from Lebanon, Somalia, France (Ronny Abraham, a native of Egypt), China, and South Africa, are already either certainly, or most likely, to vote with South Africa and against Israel. It will only take three of the remaining ten to accept the South African view, promoted by the President of the ICJ, for Israel to have a majority of judges arrayed against it. It’s hard to see how Israel can prevail at the ICJ, with a judicial deck so stacked against it.
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