A Holocaust survivor was a member of the panel of judges at the International Court of Justice – where he voted in favor of two measures in the case brought by South Africa against Israel.
Aharon Barak (87 years old) is a special judge, meaning he was brought in specifically for this case.
Subordinate Six orders brought by South Africa to the court in The HagueThe Israeli judge voted in favor of two orders: an order to provide humanitarian aid and another to ban inflammatory speech.
Barak said he supported those orders in the hope that they would “help ease tensions and discourage harmful rhetoric” while alleviating “the consequences of armed conflict on the most vulnerable groups.”
Mr. Barak, fourth from right, at the opening of hearings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Photo: AP
The judge was born in Lithuania in 1936 and was one of the few children to survive the ghetto in the central Lithuanian city of Kovno during World War II.
He described his survival as a miracle, saying: “Since that incident, I have never feared death.”
Mr Barak, left, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1997. Image: Reuters
Mr. Barak was smuggled out of the ghetto by his mother, who hid him in a bag of uniforms that had been manufactured there.
He immigrated to Palestine, which was under British mandate, in 1947, a year before it became Israel.
Three decades later, between 1975 and 1978, Mr. Barak served as Israel's Attorney General.
In 1978, he was appointed to the Israeli Supreme Court and served as its president from 1995 to 2006, when he retired.
Please use Chrome browser for an easily accessible video player
“We expect Israel to abide by the procedures of the International Court of Justice.”
Read more:
What is genocide and why did South Africa sue Israel over it?
South African leaders are celebrating, but the lack of a ceasefire order is a major blow
Barak is known as a champion of Supreme Court activism and has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose efforts to reform the judiciary last year deeply polarized the Israeli public.
Click to subscribe to Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts
In an interview last November with the Canadian daily newspaper The Globe and Mail, Barak expressed his support for Israeli military operations in Gaza.
“I completely agree with what the government is doing,” he said.
In response to a question about accusations that Israel is waging a genocidal war in Gaza, Barak said that this term should be used to describe the October 7 attacks launched by Hamas on Israel.
“What we are doing is preventing them from doing it again,” he said.
