The Case Against Israel Dictionary (CAID, 2024 – 2025)
A Forensic Dictionary of Genocide, Power, and Language

Overview

CAID undertakes the etymological and semiotic analysis of twelve key documents issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning the proceedings instituted by the Republic of South Africa against the State of Israel on December 29, 2023. These proceedings charge Israel with violations of its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, specifically in relation to its actions in Gaza.

Conducted in Cairo, Egypt, this research culminates in an anti-colonial etymological dictionary; a forensic archive that excavates the linguistic, rhetorical, visual, and sonic architecture of the ICJ’s legal texts. CAID approaches the trial not only as a juridical procedure, but as a discursive battlefield: a rare public stage where the genocidal logic of Zionism is legally interrogated, and where language itself becomes the terrain of confrontation.

Where legal language obscures violence, CAID functions as a weapon: forged through etymology, activated through clarity, and directed at the linguistic foundations of settler colonial control.

This ICJ case marks a rupture in the global order–a singularity. For the first time in recent memory, a major international body is compelled to name and confront Israeli state violence in real time. But the struggle is not waged through evidence alone. It is waged with words. Phrases such as “Provisional Measures,” “Self-Defense,” “Proportionate Response,” and “Occupation” carry embedded residues of colonial logic, encoded to justify erasure, deferral, and dispossession.

CAID targets these residues. It traces their origins, exposes their distortions, and reconstructs their meaning through historical, ethical, and metaphysical precision. This glossary becomes the dismantling of the legal scaffolding that has enabled genocide to masquerade as defense, and Palestinians to be rendered spectral within their own homeland.

Content & Scope

CAID will analyze 12 ICJ documents: applications, orders, responses, and rulings. Focusing on core terms such as:  Genocide, Statehood, Ceasefire, Provisional Measures, Occupation, Self-Defense, Terrorism, Civilians, Children, and Hostages.

Structure

CAID is both an anti-colonial dictionary and a living archive. Each term receives a tripartite analysis:

1- Etymology: Linguistic origin and evolution.

2- Colonial Distortion: Legal/political manipulation and usage in international law.

3- Counter-Narrative: Grounded in indigenous, historical, and political truth

This dictionary is not static, but dynamic; a breathing structure that evolves with the trial and future legal developments. It is designed to expand as new precedents emerge, ensuring CAID remains a living, responsive tool of decolonial memory and truth.

CAID received a research grant from the Foundation For Arts Initiatives (FFAI) in 2024.