(RNS) — In the next few weeks the 17 judges of the International Court of Justice in the Hague will make a provisional ruling on whether Israel, in its war in Gaza, has been “engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.” 

What the judges find, however, is secondary to the groundbreaking development in the nearly 80-year-old story of Palestinian suffering: Israel is a defendant at the Hague. The case against Israel recognizes Palestinian suffering in a world where Palestinian suffering so often goes unnoticed or ignored. 

It’s fitting that the case has been brought by South Africa. The country is carrying on the legacy of Nelson Mandela, who aimed at dismantling apartheid and colonial systems. It is motivated, too, by Mandela’s insistence that everyone’s “freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” South Africa is not alone in its assessment. Malaysia, Turkey, Jordan, Bolivia, Pakistan, Colombia and several other countries endorsed this pioneering initiative.

But South Africa’s move is not merely symbolic. This accusation that Israel must now defend itself against in an international court of law serves to disrupt the Israeli modus operandi, a global status quo in which American hegemony protects Israeli interests across the region, freeing Israel to murder Palestinians with impunity.

Notably, the judges at the Hague are not tasked with deciding whether Israel’s conduct constitutes genocide. Instead, they are asked to establish whether some of Israel’s actions “are capable of falling within the provisions of the (U.N. Genocide) Convention.” Adila Hassim, a member of South Africa’s legal team, did not mince words in the opening hearing on Jan. 11: “It is clear that at least some, if not all, of these acts fall within the convention’s provisions,” she said.

FILE – Palestinians inspect the damage of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes on Jabaliya refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. Israel and Hamas have both been accused of breaking the rules of armed conflict. (AP Photo/Abdul Qader Sabbah, File)

The South Africans detailed Israeli war crimes in present tense, as Palestinians continue to be murdered every hour; in other words, the trial is taking place as the genocide unfolds. On the day of that opening hearing alone, Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported more than 100 Palestinians killed and more than 200 injured. 

In her statement to the court, Hassim alluded to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ description of Gaza in early November as a “graveyard for children.” Hassim, making the case for genocide, told the judges, “The scale of Palestinian child killings in Gaza is such that U.N. chiefs have described it as ‘a graveyard for children.’”

In her address to the ICJ, Irish human rights lawyer Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh enumerated the scope of the devastation. “The level of Israel’s killing is so extensive that nowhere is safe in Gaza. As I stand before you today, 23,210 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces… at least 70% of whom are believed to be women and children.” 

As a Palestinian American, I have to own that if Israel is guilty of genocidal acts, my own country is complicit. It is the U.S. that serves as Israel’s diplomatic “Iron Dome,” particularly on the U.N. Security Council, where it vetoes any resolutions critical of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. Since 1945, the U.S. has vetoed 34 out of 36 Security Council resolutions on the Israel-Palestine conflict. These are resolutions that included international norms such as asking Israel to adhere to international laws or to cease settlement building in occupied Palestinian territories.

Perhaps the most damning evidence of U.S. complicity is that it also serves as Israel’s arsenal. Just last month, the Biden administration bypassed Congress twice to approve more than $250 million worth of weapons and supporting equipment required to operate previously purchased arms. 

Ní Ghrálaigh concluded the South African team’s presentation by noting that Israel’s crimes were no secret to be discovered. “(This is) the first genocide in history,” she said, “where its victims are broadcasting their own destruction in real time, in the desperate — so far vain — hope that the world might do something.”

Regardless of how the Hague’s judges rule, anyone with a conscience — anyone with a living, beating heart — has witnessed the genocide for themselves. Now a major court of international law is hearing the truth. Verdict aside, Israel’s war crimes have already been exposed.