South Africa has alleged that Israel is breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention through acts and omissions “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”.

Hearings took place earlier this month and a decision on preliminary measures is expected late this month or early next month.

Yesterday, opposition TDs urged the government to support the South African case, including through a third-party state intervention at the ICJ.

However, agriculture minister Charlie McConalogue — speaking on behalf of the government — said a decision on intervening would “be based on detailed and rigorous legal analysis” which “will take some time”.

He highlighted that Ireland’s intervention in Ukraine’s ICJ case against Russia “was made six months after the court made its provisional measures order and two months after Ukraine, as applicant, submitted its memorial”.

TDs backed a government amendment saying the Dáil agrees to “strongly consider an intervention in the South Africa v Israel case at the ICJ, as a matter of urgency after the court has made its order on preliminary measures and the filing by South Africa of its memorial in the case”.

A number of states have already indicated their intention to intervene in the ICJ proceedings, including Germany, which said it would do so on the basis it rejects the South African allegations. Namibia, whose Herero and Nama people suffered a genocide under German colonial rule, condemned that decision.