Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh

Ms Ní Ghrálaigh, who is based in London and practises as a barrister with Matrix Chambers, is serving as one of two external counsel supporting the South African legal team, South African newspaper TimesLIVE reports.

She was featured in Irish Legal News as Lawyer of the Month in February 2022 after successfully defending one of the ‘Colston Four’ acquitted of criminal damage for toppling a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol.

Ms Ní Ghrálaigh previously worked on the Bloody Sunday inquiry and has also appeared before the ICJ on behalf of Croatia in a case alleging genocide by Serbia.

In an 84-page document submitted to the ICJ last week, South Africa accuses Israel of breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention through acts and omissions which are “intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group, that being the part of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip”.

“Israel has reduced and is continuing to reduce Gaza to rubble, killing, harming and destroying its people, and creating conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction as a group,” the filing states.

South Africa is seeking urgent provisional measures including an order from the ICJ that Israel “shall immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza”.

The ICJ is expected to hear the case on 11-12 January 2024.