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The Belgian government on Wednesday asked its Foreign Affairs Ministry to examine a senior coalition member's call to back South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
“We must act against the threat of genocide,” Deputy Prime Minister Petra de Sutter said on X. “I want Belgium to take action at the International Court of Justice, following the lead of South Africa.”
“The Foreign Affairs Ministry will first conduct a legal analysis and examine the position of other European countries,” said Sam De Paepe, spokesperson for Prime Minister Alexander De Croo's liberal Open VLD party.
“We will then decide what position to take,” Mr de Paepe told The National, which has contacted the ministry for comment.
It is unclear how long the analysis will take. Mr de Croo is travelling to China for the next three days and a decision is not expected until his return.
If the government agrees to follow Ms de Sutter's proposal, Belgium could become the first EU country to back the South African case.
It could choose to lodge its own case at the ICJ or join South Africa's complaint, which was filed in December.
Belgian political parties are divided on the Israel-Gaza conflict. Ms de Sutter is a member of the Flemish Green party and is supported in her call by the Flemish Socialists and the Christian Democrats' party, CD&V.
"This conflict is extremely fraught, so it is very important to judge based on facts. As an independent body, the International Court of Justice is best placed to investigate the risk of genocide," said CD&V MP and chair of the Parliament's federal affairs committee, Els Van Hoof.
The Open VLD opposed a proposal made in November by Ms de Sutter to boycott the import of goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements.
Other members of Mr de Croo's coalition government had not responded to The National at the time of publication.
The first hearings in the South African case, which alleges that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, are scheduled for Thursday and Friday.
Israeli bombardments and raids have killed more than 23,000 people in Gaza since October 7, according to local authorities.
Israel says it does its best to protect civilian lives. Israeli president Isaac Herzog has called the South African accusations “atrocious and preposterous”.
In a statement published on Instagram, Ms de Sutter pointed at Israel's blockade of Gaza, which prevents the arrival of food, medicine and fuel and has forced hospitals to operate without anaesthesia.
Most of the enclave's population has been displaced and it is not clear whether its inhabitants will be able to return.
“Representatives of the Israeli government refer to Palestinians as 'human animals', declare they will 'get hell' and threaten to 'eliminate everything',” Ms de Sutter said.
“Unimaginable, horrific acts. They disturb me as they do many of you. Under the Genocide Convention it is our duty to act once there is a risk of genocide.
“All those international treaties are valuable only when we abide by them,” she said.
In November, Ms de Sutter called on the Belgian government to sanction Israel.
Belgium has since said that it would ban extremist Israeli settlers from its territory but has not disclosed who it has targeted. The EU has not implemented similar measures.
Ms de Sutter has also condemned Hamas and called for the release of Israeli hostages detained by the group in Gaza since October 7.
No EU country has so far supported South Africa's case at the ICJ.
Earlier this week, Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said his country would not back the case and warned of the need to be “very careful” about defining genocide.
Mr Varadkar has previously expressed some of the strongest criticism from EU leaders of Israel's military operation in Gaza and highlighted the West's “double standards” in the war.
The EU, which is historically deeply divided over the Israel-Palestine conflict, will probably not call for a ceasefire until the US does, Mr Varadkar said last month.
His comments on the South African case were echoed by UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron who said he did not think it was “helpful” or “right”.
“I don't think we should bandy around terms like genocide in this case, I don't think that's correct,” he told British legislators on Tuesday.
Countries that support the South African complaint include Malaysia, Turkey, Jordan and Bolivia, as well as the Organisation of Islamic Countries, which includes 57 member states.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
CHINESE GRAND PRIX STARTING GRID
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Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
The biog
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Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
