The ICJ’s middle-ground provisional ruling on whether Israel may be committing genocide in Gaza was not surprising given the specific difficulties of proving genocide. Still, to point out that the ruling falls short of what either party might have wanted would be to miss its wider implications that go far beyond the Gaza conflict.
Many countries across Africa are experiencing an economic malaise. What began as a slump for commodity exporters in 2014 became a general slowdown with the shocks of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. But like Africa’s last “lost decade” in the 1980s, a moment of crisis could be an opportunity to set a different economic course.
The events of the past three months serve as a painful reminder that the truths of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict do not go away simply because they are ignored. Acknowledgment of the conflict’s realities is necessary to avoid further repetition of violence and to take steps toward a resolution that minimizes future killing.