Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza, the United States forcefully informed the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

In its filing to the ICJ, the Trump administration declared “in the strongest terms possible” that South Africa’s genocide allegations against Israel are false. For two years, the court, acting on Pretoria’s spurious legal charge, has conducted a legal circus disguised as a question for moral justice. The legal weight of American intervention might finally bring the farce to an end.

Washington’s message was straightforward: the charge of genocide is being misused as a weapon against the Jewish state. The US warned the court against diluting the meaning of genocide by lowering the standard for proving intent, arguing that such a move would turn the convention into a political bludgeon for unrelated disputes.

That is precisely the problem. South Africa’s filing was never really about legal precision. It was about narrative warfare, dressed up in judicial language.

Israel, for its part, submitted its own counter-memorial on Saturday, rejecting what it called a “fabricated and politicized blood libel.” Jerusalem argued that it is fighting a lawful war of self-defense after the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, and that its military campaign has targeted Hamas operatives and infrastructure, not civilians.

The filing also pushed back hard on the central inversion embedded in the case: the attempt to recast a state defending its citizens from a genocidal terror movement as the genocidal actor. Israel argued that it took extraordinary steps to reduce civilian harm and facilitate humanitarian aid, while Hamas systematically embedded itself inside civilian areas and used Gazans as human shields.

Deputy Attorney General Gilad Noam put it plainly: Israel knows what genocide is, and nothing in its conduct or intent bears any resemblance to that crime.

See related: New study debunks Gaza genocide claims with facts and figures

The charge of genocide is not merely inaccurate here. It is corrosive. It cheapens one of the gravest crimes in international law and turns it into a slogan for anti-Israel lawfare.

America’s intervention does not end the case. But it does restore a measure of clarity. Israel is not on trial for trying to exterminate a people. It is defending itself against an enemy openly committed to its destruction.

That distinction should have been obvious from the start.

Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates