Media reports that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel was “plausibly” accused of genocide are inaccurate, a former president of the main UN judicial arm in the Hague has confirmed.

The court never decided that South Africa’s claim that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza was “plausible,” Joan Donoghue, who served as president of the ICJ from February 2021 to February 2024, said in an interview with the BBC.

Yet an avalanche of media reports and a slew of diplomats interpreted the court’s ruling that way.

“I’m glad I have a chance to address that because the court’s test for deciding whether to impose measures uses the idea of plausibility. But the test is the plausibility of the rights that are asserted by the applicant, in this case South Africa” Donoghue told the BBC show HARDtalk.

“The court decided that the Palestinians had a plausible right to be protected from genocide and that South Africa had the right to present that claim in the court,” Donoghue said.

“It then looked at the facts as well. But it did not decide – and this is something where I’m correcting what’s often said in the media – it didn’t decide that the claim of genocide was plausible.”

“It did emphasise in the order that there was a risk of irreparable harm to the Palestinian right to be protected from genocide,” she continued.

“But the shorthand that often appears, which is that there’s a plausible case of genocide, isn’t what the court decided.”

Donoghue’s term on the bench expired a few days after the court delivered its initial ruling on January 26.

Following the ruling, Israel was widely accused of genocide and lawsuits charged other countries with abetting Israeli genocide or failing to stop the Jewish state from committing genocide.

After a follow-up South African case, the UN court instituted provisional measures on March 28 that ordered Israel to ensure without delay that humanitarian assistance to Gaza was being scaled up and sped up in its delivery.

It also ruled that Israel must ensure that the Israel Defense Forces avoids violating the convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide, including by preventing the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

The UN high court has yet to rule on South Africa’s initial claim that Israel is committing genocide. It is not expected to do so for months.