The Netherlands and Iceland have officially intervened in the ongoing genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The two countries filed their separate declarations of intervention on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, by invoking Article 63 of the Statute of the Court.
According to a press statement by the ICJ on Thursday, the European nations are intervening based on their status as parties to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Under Article 63, any state party to a convention has the right to intervene when the construction of that convention is in question in a case between other states.
By exercising this right, the Netherlands and Iceland have accepted that the interpretation of the Genocide Convention provided by the Court’s final judgment will be equally binding on them.
The Court has subsequently invited South Africa and Israel to furnish written observations on these declarations of intervention.
The case, which began in December 2023, has seen a surge of interventions from countries across the globe.
The Netherlands and Iceland join a long list of countries that have sought to participate in the proceedings, including: Colombia, Libya, Mexico, Spain, Türkiye, Chile, the Maldives, and Bolivia.
Others are Ireland, Cuba, Belize, Brazil, the Comoros, and Belgium. Paraguay, the Netherlands, and Iceland.
South Africa had on December 29, 2023, filed an application instituting proceedings against Israel over alleged violations of its obligations under the Genocide Convention regarding Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Since the commencement of the case, the Court has indicated several provisional measures, including an initial order on January 26, 2024, and subsequent modifications in March and May 2024.
The ICJ, which sits at the Peace Palace in The Hague, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It is composed of 15 judges elected for nine-year terms and is tasked with settling legal disputes between state.
