Why Egypt backed South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in the ICJ

 Angered by Israel’s moves in Gaza and the regional security risks they pose, Egypt joined the genocide case.

Image grab from footage released by the Israeli army shows the 401st Brigade's tanks entering the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on May 7, 2024. The Israeli army said it took 'operational control' of the Palestinian side of the crossing and troops were scanning the area [Fayez Noureddine/Israeli Army/AFP].

As Israel devastates Gaza, Egypt has largely had to watch on with rising concern about the developments on its border.

Its border with the Palestinian enclave has been a route for aid going in and people coming out but Israel has had the ultimate say over access to the border, even if it did not have a physical presence there until last week.

And it was that move – to send Israeli troops to the Rafah border crossing – that experts believe has cemented Egypt’s belief that Israel is not taking its security and political concerns seriously, and is instead “disrespecting” them.

Egypt has now taken its own steps – on May 12, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Egypt had joined South Africa’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case against Israel.

“The significance of this move is that it is sending a signal that Egypt is not happy with what’s happening in Gaza and how Israel is behaving,” said Nancy Okail, an expert on Egypt and the president and CEO of the Center for International Policy, even as she downplayed the effect of Egypt’s decision on the ICJ’s final verdict, labelling it a “symbolic gesture”.

Egypt has grown increasingly alarmed with Israel’s military operations in Rafah, where about 1.5 million Palestinians from all over Gaza had sought refuge.

The takeover of the Philadelphia Corridor, which separates Egypt from Gaza, is particularly worrying for Cairo; the Egyptian parliament has warned that the Israeli military’s presence there was a violation of the Camp David Accords that brought peace between Egypt and Israel.

“The way Israel has acted in the last week and a half has been incredibly troubling for Egyptian officials,” said Erin A Snyder, a scholar of Egypt and a former professor at Texas A&M University. “They have been effectively showing disrespect for the relations that they have [with Egypt].”

Red lines crossed?

The possibility that Israel’s ultimate goal in Gaza is to force out its Palestinian population has worried Egypt since the beginning of the war in October.

Early on, Israel’s intelligence ministry drafted a paper that proposed the transfer of Gaza’s 2.3 million people to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Although the Israeli government downplayed the report, Israeli politicians, including the far-right duo of Finance Minister Bezalel Smirch and National Security Minister Isamar Ben-Giver, said they supported the “voluntary” migration of Palestinians from Gaza.