The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has recently kicked the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel further down the road. It has authorised the filing of a second round of written submissions (court pleadings). The first round of pleadings consisted of a memorial and counter memorial. The court was requested by South Africa last month that a second round of pleadings was required because of the complexity of the case and the volume of Israel’s counter-memorial with numerous annexures. Israel also filed objections to the court’s jurisdiction and the admissibility of South Africa’s application.

Article 49 (3) of the rules of the ICJ provides:

“The Reply and Rejoinder, whenever authorized by the Court, shall not merely repeat the parties’ contentions, but shall be directed to bringing out the issues that still divide them.

In a ruling dated 29 May 2026 the ICJ has given South Africa until 22 November 2027, to file its reply and Israel has until 22 May 22, 2029, to submit a rejoinder.

Dr Gilad Noam, a member of Israel’s legal team, said in a post on X dated 31 May 2026:

“It demonstrates that South Africa’s allegations are wholly unfounded and that this is a case that should never have been brought in the first place. This case constitutes a manifest misuse of the Genocide Convention and of the Court itself. Regardless of how long it may take, the only tenable outcome remains the dismissal of South Africa’s claims in their entirety.”

What is the significance of this extension of time limits and the filing of further documents and what does this mean for the future of the case?

Clearly Israel’s counter memorial, its statement of defence, has seriously derailed the entire case of genocide brought by South Africa. This is not surprising. The memorial filed by South Africa was filled with tendentious and inaccurate material which cannot stand scrutiny.

Legal wisdom has it, that if you cannot make out a decent case in your founding papers, you will be most unlikely to fix it in reply.  The odds are that the case against Israel was at its high point in December 2023 when it brought the application for provisional measures but since then it is........

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