In an Interview with Mehr News Agency on the sidelines of the International Conference of Al-Aqsa Strom and Awakening of Human Conscience, Dr. Sami A. Al-Arian, Public Affairs Professor and Director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs in Istanbul, referred to the developments regarding the Gaza war and the ongoing Israeli regime's crimes in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Referring to the case filed by South Africa against the Israeli regime at the ICJ, Al-Arian said, "I think the ruling by the ICJ, if they rule that Israel has been committing genocide, it is going to be very significant."
It will expose Israel as what it is; it's a genocidal regime, he added.
South Africa filed a case against Israel at the ICJ in November, blaming the regime for crimes of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza as part of a relentless bombardment that has killed more than 23,000 people and caused widespread destruction in the besieged enclave.
"It's not clear if they are going to rule on the merit. But the case is very clear. It's a case of genocide. It has been proven. But because of the political nature of its ruling sometimes people are concerned that some member states or some judges who are representing the member states who have been standing with the genocidal war in Gaza that they may vote differently," he went on to say.
Al-Arian went on to say that his assessment is that out of 15 members, 4 or 5 will certainly vote against the Israeli regime and 4 or 5 will actually not because of their governments. That leaves the rest of the members to see whether they would be impacted by political pressure or not.
Elsewhere in his remarks, he touched upon the reasons behind the continuation of mass murder of the Palestinians residing in the Gaza Strip, 100 days after the start of the war between the occupying regime and Palestinian Resistance groups.
"The Zionists had two problems with the operation of October 7. One is that they had an image of being ever-invincible," he said, adding that the Zionists thought they had the image of having an invincible army that no one could defeat. "That image has been shattered. And because of that, they are trying to restore it. So that's why you see this massive killing is taking place."
"Secondly, they think this is a historic opportunity to end the demographic problem. Palestinians today, inside the historical land of Palestine are more than Jews. So they are trying to see if they can expel the Palestinians from Gaza or from other places so that they can claim that they are a democratic and Jewish majority state," Al-Arian underlined, emphasizing that the Zionists will definitely fail to prove each of those scenarios.
Referring to the failure of the international community to stop the Israeli regime's genocidal war on Gaza, Al-Arian slammed the role of the US in protecting the occupying regime at any cost.
"The international community is composed of an order which is an American-led order. America has been the single country that has been frustrating this order. They don't respect international law and they protect Israel at all cost," he said.
He also criticized the inability of Muslim states to take effective and practical action in favor of the Palestinians.
"But part of the problem is also the impotence and weakness of the Muslim countries. They met almost two months ago. They have not been able to even implement the weak resolution they passed. You know, you have 57 countries, they have 5 million soldiers, $1 trillion dollars of money that has been spent on their armies, 55 hundred planes, 22 thousand tanks, and so on and so forth, they haven't been able to bring in one bottle of water to the Palestinians. That tells you how weak they are and the Israeli will has been imposed in the whole region.
The International Conference of Al-Aqsa Strom and Awakening of Human Conscience was held in Tehran on Sunday, with the presence of President Raeisi, and a group of prominent scholars of the Islamic world.
Interviewed by Mohaddeseh Pakravan
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