Messina, Italy – Piles of court docket paperwork in English and Arabic stuffed the desk and coated the ground of Triestino Mariniello’s house workplace for a lot of March in Messina, a metropolis in southern Italy overlooking Mediterranean waters on one aspect and the smoking Etna volcano on the opposite.
Right here, removed from the struggle, a crew of legal professionals from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCGR) in Gaza, to which Mariniello belongs, labored final month on their try to prosecute Israel for genocide.
“We thought it was a great way to try to be extra productive in a spot the place you’ll be able to truly detach your self from the fixed horrors, regardless that that will appear inconceivable nowadays,” Mariniello instructed Al Jazeera. “We additionally thought-about this as a possibility for our colleague from Gaza to catch a breath after what he’s been going via.”
The PCHR authorized crew – together with prison prosecutor Mariniello and Chantal Meloni, an Italian professor of worldwide prison legislation on the College of Milan – is led by Raji Sourani, a Palestinian lawyer from the Gaza Strip and the director of the centre. They plan to take their case to the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ).
“I’ve two nice Italian colleagues,” Sourani instructed Al Jazeera with a drained smile, nonetheless astonished to have made it to Sicily, a spot that he mentioned reminds him of house.
Sourani is without doubt one of the few Palestinians to have left Gaza together with his household, crossing into Egypt in late February after narrowly surviving an Israeli air assault.
Mariniello invited him to Messina, his hometown, to decompress and work on the case.
“For years, we’ve been documenting the horrors Gazan households have gone via, and thru this skilled cooperation, a really real friendship was born,” Mariniello mentioned.
The PCHR crew represents victims of struggle in Gaza.
Mariniello and Sourani have labored collectively since 2020 on circumstances that date again to the 2014 blockade, the 2018 border protests and 2021 disaster involving rocket fireplace from Gaza and air strikes by Israel. They’ve collected hundreds of testimonies of grieving households whose kin have been killed by Israeli forces.
“All these previous testimonies show that it didn’t begin on October 7, that it’s a way more systemic aggression that must be addressed via the precise authorized instruments,” Mariniello mentioned, referring to the day the present struggle in Gaza started. “With our work we need to humanise those that’ve been stripped of their humanity. A few of the victims we’ll characterize in The Hague are Hind Rajab, killed in a automobile along with her uncles and cousins on the age of six, and Nour Naser Abu al-Nour, certainly one of our lawyer colleagues.”
Abu al-Nour was a PCHR lawyer killed by Israeli assaults focusing on their centre in February.
One other of their colleagues, 26-year outdated Dana Yaghi, was killed in an assault two days later.
“What we’re witnessing is unprecedented. And what’s extra regarding is that the individuals documenting the horrors are dying too, erasing the proof of what’s occurring,” Sourani mentioned. “The world is simply watching Israel transcend human rights legislation. So we felt the urge to hurry up our authorized battle. That’s one other factor that’s lacking in Gaza – aside from meals and security – is time.”
After submitting documentation for a pre-trial in 2021 to the Worldwide Felony Court docket and having acquired no decision for greater than two years, the PCHR crew determined as an alternative to maneuver via the ICJ, the very best United Nations court docket, which lately put Israel on discover, warning of a believable danger of genocide in Gaza.
After their relentless work in February and March, the legal professionals really feel assured they’ve gathered sufficient proof to prosecute Israel for genocide and can quickly head to The Hague.
Israeli forces are “blocking the course of life in Gaza”, Mariniello mentioned, “from impeding childbirths and focusing on hospitals and maternity wards, to blocking very important humanitarian assist on the border and mass killings”.
Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, which has killed greater than 33,000 individuals, together with virtually 14,000 youngsters, started on October 7 when Hamas, the group that governs the strip, attacked southern Israel. Throughout that assault, 1,139 individuals have been killed and lots of of Israelis have been taken captive.
Sourani considers himself a genocide survivor. He mentioned that in his time in Messina, he realised that a lot of the world, even in sudden corners, is on the aspect of the Palestinians.
In Sicily, the authorized crew spent numerous time locked away engaged on the case. However in addition they engaged with native residents in a public debate.
On the Salone delle Bandiere convention centre in downtown Messina, about 300 individuals gathered to hearken to the specialists discuss Gaza and the steps Italians can take to help their authorized battle.
Mariniello highlighted how people, regardless of widespread misconceptions, have a vital function in supporting the work of lawmakers “as a result of it’s because of atypical residents that the apartheid resulted in South Africa. With out public help, a single authorized case can not change the course of historical past,” he mentioned throughout the lecture.
Carmelo Chite, a 65-year-old who was within the viewers, instructed Al Jazeera: “Because the begin of the battle this previous October, I really feel that there’s way more curiosity and curiosity, in Italy and elsewhere, in contrast with the previous.
“Odd individuals lastly need to perceive extra after realising that mainstream media in Italy are controlling the narrative and are genuinely searching for to assist the authorized trigger. And that’s constructive as a result of, hopefully this time, it’ll result in a change.”
The Italian authorities helps Israel and has despatched it arms however in current months has condemned the size of assaults in opposition to Palestinian civilians.
Sourani mentioned he was stunned to search out “a really supportive crowd to have a candid dialogue with”.
Sicily, he added, helped enhance the standard of his authorized argument earlier than a visit to the Netherlands.
“Watching the Etna volcano jogged my memory of my individuals. Like a volcano, we’ll by no means settle down till we obtain justice.”