Brazil backs South Africa's "Genocide" case against Israel

Brazil has formally filed a declaration of intervention at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), signaling its support for South Africa’s controversial legal case accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza during its ongoing war with Hamas.

The move places Brazil among a growing bloc of nations, including Iran, Turkey, and Pakistan, backing South Africa’s claim that Israel’s military response to the October 7 Hamas massacre violates the Genocide Convention. Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs cited “disproportionate use of force against civilians” and alleged “attacks in areas where Hamas has no presence” as its justification.

But Israeli officials and legal experts are warning that Brazil’s decision plays directly into a campaign of lawfare, a weaponization of international legal institutions, aimed at delegitimizing Israel’s right to self-defense.

“We are witnessing a grotesque inversion of reality,” said former Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon. “The country that suffered the largest mass killing of Jews since the Holocaust is now being accused of genocide, by regimes who openly support Hamas, a genocidal organization by its own charter.”

A Symbolic Blow, Not a Legal Turning Point

While Brazil’s move has symbolic weight, particularly as a major Latin American democracy, it carries limited legal significance. The ICJ case remains in its preliminary stages, and Israel has rejected the court’s jurisdiction over internal defense operations conducted in wartime. The court itself has no enforcement mechanism, and its rulings are rarely implemented when politically charged.

Still, Israeli diplomats expressed concern over the potential erosion of support among so-called “swing states,” particularly in the Global South. “This is about narrative more than jurisprudence,” a senior Israeli official told JFeed on condition of anonymity. “We’re seeing a coalition of ideological opportunists who never condemned Hamas now trying to indict the victim of terrorism.”

Ignoring October 7: The Elephant in the Courtroom

Notably absent from Brazil’s statement and from the broader case led by South Africa is any reference to the October 7 massacre, in which Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 Israelis, including entire families burned alive, children shot at point-blank range, and women raped en masse.

“How can any serious legal case ignore the context in which this war began?” asked Professor Eugene Kontorovich, an expert in international law. “This isn’t genocide. It’s a state acting to prevent another genocide, the one Hamas proudly seeks.”

Brazil’s intervention also omits Hamas’s practice of embedding its command centers, rocket launchers, and tunnel shafts in schools, hospitals, and mosques. Israel has long maintained that civilian casualties, though tragic, result from Hamas’s deliberate use of human shields, a war crime under international law.

Shifting Winds in Brasília

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has become increasingly vocal in his criticism of Israel since the beginning of the war, drawing fierce backlash earlier this year after likening Israeli actions in Gaza to those of the Nazis. Despite efforts by Brazilian Jewish leaders and international NGOs to engage with his government, Lula has doubled down on what critics call a “one-sided moral framework.”

In response to Brazil’s ICJ filing, Israel’s embassy in Brasília issued a firm rebuke, calling the move “misguided and historically blind.” The umbrella organization of Brazilian Jews, CONIB, warned that “diplomatic decisions driven by populism are endangering Jewish communities and encouraging antisemitism.”

The Broader Battle: Between Law and Propaganda

Legal scholars in Jerusalem argue that the South Africa-led case represents a broader shift in the international legal arena, from neutral adjudication to politicized advocacy.

“Courts are increasingly being used as a megaphone for activist governments seeking to criminalize Israel’s very existence,” said Anne Herzberg of NGO Monitor. “This is not about justice for Gaza. It’s about erasing Israel’s right to protect its citizens.”

Brazil’s decision to join the ICJ proceedings may be heralded by anti-Israel factions as a diplomatic victory. But to many in Israel, and to observers of international law, it is yet another example of selective morality, where terrorist atrocities are excused, and democracies defending themselves are placed in the dock.