Israel told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday that it cannot rule on South Africa's request for emergency measures in Gaza in part because SA was on holiday immediately after Christmas.

The World Court, as the ICJ is known, deals with disputes between states. South Africa says there is a clear dispute between it and Israel about SA's allegations of genocide in Gaza: South Africa believes Israel is guilty of genocide, and Israel disagrees.

But South Africa never gave Israel the opportunity to talk about that disagreement, Israel's lawyer Malcolm Shaw told the ICJ. Having failed to try to resolve the issue on a bilateral level before going to court, Shaw argued that SA had failed to show the existence of a dispute over which the court has jurisdiction.

South Africa said the existence of a dispute was already clear enough, through its public statements and referral of Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Nonetheless, SA said, "as a matter of courtesy, before filing" its ICJ case, it sent a note verbale to the Israeli embassy on 21 December.

South Africa said Israel had responded by its own note in a fashion "that failed to address the issues raised by South Africa". That response, SA told the ICJ, was emailed "late" on 27 December, and "received by the relevant South African team on 29 December 2023" – only after SA had filed its application with the ICJ.

But SA left out some critical details, Shaw told the court in reply. 

Israel responded to South Africa on 21 December, Shaw said, albeit only to let South Africa know it had referred SA's note to its capital. 

On Boxing Day, 26 December, came a more substantive reply. Israel's foreign affairs directory-general asked his SA counterpart "by text to schedule a meeting at his earliest convenience". That was followed by a formal note from the Israeli embassy on 27 December, said Shaw, which SA refused to accept by hand delivery because of the holidays.

South Africa, said Shaw, told Israel to instead deliver its note on 2 January. It then filed its ICJ application on 28 December.

This, said Shaw, showed SA rejected an "attempt by the state of Israel to open a discussion" in good faith that could have settled the matter before SA went to court.

"South Africa did not give Israel a reasonable opportunity to engage with it on the matters under consideration before filing its no-doubt long-prepared application," said Shaw.