US defends Israel against South Africa's allegation of genocide filed to top UN court

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United States will intervene in the genocide case against Israel brought at the United Nations’ highest court by South Africa, arguing that the accusations are false and warning that a ruling against Israel could undermine international law.

The International Court of Justice is considering whether Israel’s military operation in Gaza to crush Hamas amounts to genocide under a treaty drawn up after World War II. Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has vehemently denied the allegations.

In a filing obtained on Thursday by The Associated Press, the U.S. says that the accusations are part of a “broader campaign” against Israel and the Jewish people “to justify or encourage terrorism against them.”

Any party to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide can intervene to contribute its assessment of the legal questions in the case. In 2023, over 30 countries backed Ukraine in a separate case it brought against Russia.

More than a dozen other countries have filed interventions in the Israel case, including Spain, the Netherlands and Ireland. Many take a different view to that of the United States.

The U.S. filing stresses that a finding of genocide requires a “specific intent” to commit the crime and cautions the court, which sits in The Hague, against “lowering the standard.”

“Civilian casualties, even widespread civilian casualties, are not necessarily probative of genocidal intent, particularly when they occur in the context of an armed conflict involving urban combat,” the U.S. argues in the filing.

Reed Rubenstein, a legal adviser at the State Department who represents the U.S., said that a finding against Israel would be a “radical repudiation” of the court’s precedent.

Such a decision would “feed the perception that the court is simply just one more tool in the ongoing pro-Hamas lawfare campaign” against Israel, Rubenstein told the AP.

Since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire came into effect last year, the heaviest fighting in Gaza has subsided, though regular Israeli fire continues.

The shaky agreement has led to more humanitarian aid and other supplies entering the enclave, though restrictions have been reimposed during the U.S. and Israeli attacks against Iran.

The ICJ has issued a series of orders concerning Israel’s conduct in Gaza since South Africa filed its case in 2023, including telling the country to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide. In separate proceedings, the court has said that Israel must allow the U.N. aid agency in Gaza, known as UNRWA, to provide humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian territory.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister in 2024 in connection with the Gaza conflict. The ICC said there was reason to believe the pair used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid and intentionally targeted civilians.

The Trump administration responded by sanctioning ICC officials, including nine judges and top prosecutors.

Associated Press reporter Matt Lee in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.

FILE - A view of the peace Palace housing the International Court of Justice, the UN's top court, is seen, Feb. 2, 2024, in The Hague, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department has slashed by about 80% the fee for Americans to formally renounce their U.S. citizenship.

After years of legal battles with several groups representing Americans wanting to give up their citizenship, the department on Friday published a final rule in the Federal Register that reduces the cost from $2,350 to $450.

The new fee, which took effect on Friday, had been promised in 2023 but had never been implemented. The cost is now the same as it was when the State Department first started charging Americans to formally renounce their citizenship in 2010.

Renouncing U.S. citizenship can be an intensive and lengthy process. Applicants must repeatedly confirm in multiple written and verbal attestations to a State Department consular officer that they understand the implications of the step before being allowed to take a formal oath of renunciation. It must then be reviewed by the department.

The fee was raised from $450 to $2,350 in 2015 to cover the administrative expenses as the number of people wanting to renounce their citizenship surged in part due to new U.S. tax reporting requirements for American expatriates that angered many.

That dramatic fee increase drew significant opposition from groups such as the France-based Association of Accidental Americans, which represents people mainly living abroad whose U.S. citizenship is due purely to their having been born in the United States.

The association filed several lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the fee, including one that remains pending that argues there should be no cost at all for renouncing one’s citizenship.

“The Association of Accidental Americans welcomes this decision, which acknowledges the necessity of making this fundamental right accessible to all,” its president, Fabien Lehagre, said in a statement. “This victory is the direct result of six years of relentless legal action and advocacy.”

In court, the association said since the 2023 announcement that the fee would be reduced at least 8,755 Americans had paid the full $2,350 to renounce their citizenship. The State Department did not provide numbers for the total number of Americans who have renounced their citizenship.

This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of the association's president. It is Lehagre, not Lahagre.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a working lunch at the Shield of the Americas Summit, Saturday, March 7, 2026, at Trump National Doral Miami in Doral, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)