Searching for information on the International Court of Justice hearings yielded an Israel-sponsored ad calling the ongoing genocide hearing against it “meaningless.”


Israel is defending itself against allegations that its siege of Gaza is a genocide with Google search ads, in what appears to be a world first.

A Google search for the ongoing hearing against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) yielded an ad calling South Africa’s genocide case against it “meaningless” and linking to an Israeli government website for some users on Thursday. Motherboard viewed the ad, which appears above news coverage of the hearing being held in the Hague in the Netherlands. Google told Motherboard it reviewed the ad against its policies and did not take any action.

The ad was first noted on X when a user posted a screenshot of their Google search for “icj” which yielded a sponsored ad titled “Israel response to Hague ICJ” above the Google information panel for the ICJ. The ad includes subheadings of “October 7th: The Invasion” and “The North Border,” as well as survivor testimonies and resources.

Motherboard was not able to replicate the search using only the term “ICJ,” but was able to find the ad when searching “ICJ Israel.” The ad’s descriptive text reads in full, “SA’s claim is meaningless—the malicious blood libel advanced by South Africa seeks to slander the State of israel. South Africa’s claim lacks any factual or legal basis and renders meaningless.”

The ad links to the Israeli government website govextra.gov.il. The page lists information about Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack which killed 1,200 Israelis, and a video claims that “Israel is doing everything in its power to prevent harm to innocent civilians in Gaza and is acting according to international humanitarian law.”

read more: https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7b48q/israel-defends-itself-against-hague-genocide-allegations-with-google-ads

  • hottari@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    If the ICJ judges determine that Palestine is a victim of genocide (indeed), the same so-called global superpower, as one of the ratified members, is bound to stop Israel from committing further genocide on Palestinian people.

          • hottari@lemmy.ml
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            10 months ago
            1. The US cannot purport to defy an ICJ ruling meant for Israel.
            2. The US cannot stop the other ratified nations from carrying out their sworn obligation to stop genocide under the international genocide convention.
            • nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca
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              10 months ago
              1. The US cannot stop the other ratified nations from carrying out their sworn obligation to stop genocide under the international genocide convention.

              What you want here is a normative statement , not a descriptive one. In other words, yes the US can definitely prevent others from intervening against Israel. Whether they should is another matter.

          • hottari@lemmy.ml
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            10 months ago

            I think you are confusing the ICC with ICJ. Those are 2 different institutions.

              • hottari@lemmy.ml
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                10 months ago

                What ifs don’t add anything to the argument.

                Anyway, here’s to hoping other nations will do the right thing when the ICJ ruling is passed and hold all the financial supporters of genocide against Palestinians to account.

                • assassinatedbyCIA@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  They won’t, we have to be realistic here. While I want the opposite to be true. America does whatever it wants when it comes to international law. It’s very much ‘rules for thee but not for me’ with the states.

                  • hottari@lemmy.ml
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                    10 months ago

                    Ruling is against Israel, maybe we can hope to see the U.S mentioned as a co-conspirator but am not keeping my hopes up.

      • hottari@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        All the 153 nations, including the US, that have signed the convention on genocide.

        • Doods@infosec.pub
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          10 months ago

          So you’re trying to tell me the governments of the west will honor their word when it’s against their interests? when did that ever happen?

          (The tldr is the last paragraph)

          Edit : yes, they might send “supplies” and tell Isreal that what it’s doing is “bad”, but that’s just talk, the real action is being committed against the only ones who took actions, the (organization in Yemen).

          I don’t fully agree with that group, but they’re the only ones who took real action, unlike everyone else who just watched and told Isreal: “stop, please, it’s not good”.

          When Russia invaded Ukraine*, every “Civilized” nation took immediate action, cut trade, sent weapons and sent financial support, even though Ukraine originally belonged to the Russian entity, trying to reclaim it was seen as tearing the flesh of all that’s good and holy in this world.

          *: A European, white, non-islamic nation.

          But when it comes to Isreal, whom the US acknowledged as a sovereign state 5 minute after its conception, even though it’s based in land it has no right to exist in, by genocing a population** undeserving of being killed. And not only that, Isreal was supported fully by the US and the EU in its every move, not necessarily in the methods, but in the goal, Giving the Jews what they want, a land from the Nile to that other river, and making the poor nations pay for it, as all others are “deserving of being slaves to them - Jews.” as they say, ignoring the religious aspect of this conflict is ignorant.

          ** A middle-eastern, Arab, not so white, Islamic population.

          A while back I heard something on lemmy about France supporting Isreal duo to its debt to the Jews for playing a role in the holocaust or something, while the holocaust is possibly the most over-exaggerated event in modern history, in death numbers and whatnot, it’s still a horrible event, yet what that writer failed to say is that France, along with the US and many European nations, are guilty of many similar acts against the Muslim Middle Eastern population.

          The west are currently controlling every Arab state by having important government members - literally the entire government in many cases - consist of puppets they control, by threatening them - the puppets - with their crimes against humanity, by which they can turn the world media on the at any moment and strip them of their power, and offering to point the attention of the world media away from them.

          People on lemmy here like to complain about the 1%, the 0.01% and modern capitalism and billionaires, the leaders of the government ARE the 0.001% you morons, they don’t have hearts, worship money, and don’t mind doing anything to maintain their power, yes they are pretending to support Gaza even before the war to maintain public support, but the supplies they were sending before the war were just enough for the now-homeless (duo to the occupation) Palestinian population to just die slowly enough for it to not attract public attention. They were quick to blame Hamas for “stealing supplies meant to support the poor population” THAT’S how you support a homeless population, by giving them guns to fight for their rights and freedom.

          (the last sentence reminded me of what someone told me about a Rambo movie, IDK anything a ku Rambo don’t quote me on that)

          • hottari@lemmy.ml
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            10 months ago

            The US cannot be seen to openly support genocide against the determination of all the other countries that signed the treaty. There’s no world where what you are describing is a win.

                • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mlM
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                  10 months ago

                  Okay, so why would the US care? If it can get away with genocide surely it can just support an ally doing a genocide and get away with it.

                • TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
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                  10 months ago

                  USA supported and encouraged apartheid in South Africa, and hated black revolutionaries for a reason. USA’s racial segregation policies were the inspiration for Hitler and his Reich regime.

                  Morality is not your strong suit.

                  • hottari@lemmy.ml
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                    10 months ago

                    The facts keeps breaking your brains as regards matters international foreign policy and the issue with Israel. Unless you send U.S soldiers to continue the genocide, an ICJ determination will prevail in Gaza. Your feelings do not matter on this. Only facts.

            • ikidd@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              So a country that’s committed genocidal acts with impunity is not going to get away with refusing to stop others genocide? Where’s the logic in that?

            • Doods@infosec.pub
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              10 months ago

              The US: “I am going to say I don’t support this, but I do, and all of you understand that I do, and you all know what will happen if you refuse”

              Maybe I am just too much of a ‘conspiracy theory acknowledging, modern capitalism hating, 1% despising, extremist muslim’ (or whatever it’s called) but I genuinely don’t think anything good will come out of the west, and that if they had a ‘kill a random innocent child and get slightly richer and more power’ button, they would pay a starving African child 0.01$ an hour to continuously press it for them, and hire a guard to leash them if they get tired.

              (the guard part doesn’t financially make sense as well as not using a machine to press the button, but you get the idea that I hate them so bad I would execute many of them if I had the ability)

              • hottari@lemmy.ml
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                10 months ago

                The US: “I am going to say I don’t support this, but I do, and all of you understand that I do, and you all know what will happen if you refuse”

                True. The world has been following along with this narrative. But times are changing (the US foreign policy has never been weaker) and I don’t think when it comes to it, any country wants to be seen internationally as a supporter of genocide. The West can bluff all they want now but we all know they will be forced to drop Israel just like they did to Ukraine’s war efforts. Genocide is not a casual matter you can brush aside after an ICJ determination.

                • Doods@infosec.pub
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                  10 months ago

                  True. I think the populations of the world have put so much pressure on this case it can’t be brushed aside, but the US Loves Isreal, and has much experience avoiding consequences, but I am not sure how much of the blow can they soften on Isreal at the moment, but I still don’t doubt the US’s ability to hide history from the masses.

                  (I know Trump is old news but the video’s made me laugh when I first saw it)