In a fast-expanding global battleground, enablers and opponents of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza are facing off in an unusual landscape: courtrooms. Over the past six months, lawyers, activists, organisations and states who believe that international law and conventions that prohibit genocide actually mean something and must be implemented have submitted an unprecedented number of lawsuits and motions to national and international courts.

This new frontier in the century-old battle between Palestinian Arabism and Zionism is significant because it promises a more level playing field where traditional military-political strengths and weaknesses are neutralised or even reversed.

This extraordinary legal mobilisation is already worrying the Israeli government, which is seeking help from Western allies to fend off the accusations. Meanwhile, the Israeli army has established an international law department to handle the flood of new legal challenges to Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip.

And yet, mainstream Western media is mostly staying away from covering this important story in depth.

Perhaps it is because the United States and many other Western governments are charged as complicit main backers of the crime of genocide in these cases. Or perhaps it is because an ally of the West is accused of such heinous crimes.

Whatever the reason, the lack of diligent coverage says much about where the Western media’s heart is. It is consistent with the longstanding convergence between the Israeli position, US government policy and mainstream media coverage – or lack of it.

One of the pivotal developments in the legal fight to stop Israeli genocide is the ongoing South African case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). During the initial January hearing in The Hague, most Western outlets did not cover South Africa’s arguments in the case in full, likely because they revealed many uncomfortable truths about Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza and the 75 years of Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

On January 26, the ICJ found it is “plausible” Israel committed acts in Gaza that violate the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Israel and its Western allies ignored it while much of the Western media downplayed it or emphasised the positive spin for Israel –........

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