Mr. President of the Republic Elysée Palace, 55 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré 75008 PARIS December 20, 2024 in Paris, Mr. President of the Republic, The French Jurists Association for the Respect of International Law (JURDI) sent you a letter on September 10, 2024 to alert you to the imperative need for France to implement, in its relations with the State of Israel, the obligation to prevent the commission of the crime of genocide.
Since that date, further evidence has emerged that acts of genocide have been and continue to be committed in the Gaza Strip.
On 20 September 2024, the United Nations Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs in the occupied territories concluded in a report (A/79/363) that the facts submitted to it, in view of the very large number of civilian casualties, including the methods of warfare employed by the State of Israel in the Gaza Strip, including the use of starvation as a weapon of war, present elements characteristic of genocide.
On December 5, 2024, a comprehensive investigation by Amnesty International also concluded that the State of Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip through its policy of incessant bombing of densely populated areas, destruction of hospital facilities, permanent water and electricity cutoffs, obstruction of humanitarian aid delivery, and multiple forced displacements of the population. We are therefore contacting you again to ask you, given the plausible risk of genocide in the Gaza Strip, to adopt a new approach that is far more committed to implementing the obligation to prevent genocide than that followed by the previous government, a new approach that would be much more in line with the French tradition of respecting and implementing international law.
As you know, on January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in the case concerning the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel), issued an order stating that there was a plausible risk of genocide being committed by the State of Israel against the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip. This risk led the Court to order strict provisional measures, reinforced by a further order on March 28, 2024, to try to prevent or stop it. On May 24, 2024, the ICJ adopted further provisional measures, ordering Israel, in particular, to cease its military offensive in Rafah and any action in that area that could subject the Palestinians in Gaza to living conditions capable of bringing about their total or partial physical destruction. The measures ordered by the Court are not being respected by the State of Israel, which further increases the risk of the commission of the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Despite these legally binding measures emanating from the highest international court, France has not adopted any concrete steps since January 26, 2024, to ensure that its public and private actors are not involved in the commission of this plausible crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip. The nature and intensity of the diplomatic, military (arms and ammunition supplies, exchanges between the armed forces), economic, commercial, financial, technological, scientific, academic, and human relations between France and Israel necessitate, in light of the need to comply with international law, a complete overhaul of these relations. Indeed, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948, requires France, on the one hand, to act to prevent the commission of the crime of genocide and, on the other hand, to ensure that it provides no "aid or assistance" to the commission of this crime. We have attached to this letter a detailed note which outlines and explains the basis and modalities of France’s international obligations in this matter.
The French Association of Jurists for the Respect of International Law (JURDI) remains at your disposal to discuss with your services the content and modalities of the new direction which must be taken so that France, its public and private actors, whether legal persons or natural persons, cannot be accused, including before the courts, of having been complicit in violations of the obligation to prevent the commission of a crime of genocide.
The President of JURDI,
Patrick ZAHND
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