![Presiding judge Joan Donoghue at the International Court of Justice.](https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/icj-israel-genocide-south-africa-01302024-1.jpg?w=519&h=259&crop=1)
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.