The Saturday network morning shows consisting of ABC’s Good Morning America, NBC’s Today, and CBS Saturday Morning all discussed the International Court of Justice’s Friday ruling against Israel by portraying the country as defying the court’s order to halt its battle against Hamas in Rafah. However, what the court actually ruled was more complicated, leaving viewers unaware that Israel may not be in violation of the ruling at all.
CBS was the worst offender. Host Dana Jacobson began, “The United Nations’s highest court has ordered Israel to immediately end its military operations in Rafah in southern Gaza, but it stopped short of demanding a full cease-fire. The court itself has no enforcement powers, but the U.N. measure is the latest of legal and diplomatic challenges for Israel.”
Of the 13 judges in the majority opinion, two wrote additional opinions, echoed by the two dissenters, stating they believe they are ruling that Israel can continue to operate in Rafah, it just needs to comply with its obligations under the Geneva Conventions, which Israel claims it is already doing. Only one, the ad hoc judge from South Africa, interpreted the ruling as saying Israel must completely stop. The other ten remained silent. By contrast, the ICJ’s ruling against Russia was much clearer, ordering it to “immediately suspend” its operations against Ukraine.
[See NewsBusters for more]