Netherlands, Iceland step into South Africa's ICJ case

THE case brought by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has drawn further international involvement after the Netherlands and Iceland filed declarations to intervene in the proceedings.

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In a statement released on Thursday, the ICJ confirmed that both countries submitted declarations of intervention on March 11 under Article 63 of the court’s statute in the case concerning the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Article 63 allows states that are parties to a convention being interpreted in a case to intervene in proceedings before the court.

"Whenever the construction of a convention to which States other than those concerned in the case are parties is in question, each of these States has the right to intervene in the proceedings," the court said.

It added that if a state exercises this right, "the construction given by the judgment of the Court will be equally binding upon it."

Both countries relied on their status as parties to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted in 1948.