Gaza Herald- Julia Sebutinde, the Ugandan vice president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), has declared that God “is counting on me to stand on the side of Israel,” adding that recent events in the Middle East show signs of the Biblical “end times.”
In early 2024, Sebutinde was the lone dissenter on a 17-judge ICJ panel that ruled it was “plausible” Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, opposing all six measures the court adopted. Later that year, in July, she was again the only dissenting voice when a 15-judge panel determined that Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories was “unlawful.”
In February 2025, a study accused her of plagiarizing significant portions of her July 2024 dissent, claiming that “at least 32 percent” of it had been copied almost verbatim from other sources. Sebutinde declined to respond to the allegations at the time.
The 71-year-old judge has now spoken publicly about her stance for the first time, delivering remarks on August 10 at Uganda’s Watoto Church, as reported by the Ugandan news outlet Monitor. “The Lord is counting on me to stand on the side of Israel,” she said. “The whole world was against Israel, including my own country.”
Sebutinde expressed disappointment that Uganda’s government distanced itself from her position. In January 2024, a government spokesperson stated that her views were “her individual and independent opinion” and “do not reflect the position of the Republic of Uganda.” She recalled one ambassador telling others to “ignore her because her ruling does not represent Uganda.”
‘God Has Allowed Me to Be Part of the Last Days’
Sebutinde, who briefly served as the ICJ’s acting president earlier this year, said she felt divinely compelled to run for vice president of the court. She recounted that on the morning of the election, as she lay in bed worrying about criticism over her pro-Israel stance, she felt God call her a “coward” and tell her to “wake up.”
She also linked the situation in Gaza to Biblical prophecy, saying it was a sign of the approaching end times. “I am strongly convinced that we are in the end times,” she told the congregation. “The signs are being shown in the Middle East. I want to be on the right side of history. Time is running out. Follow what’s happening in Israel. I am humbled that God has allowed me to be part of the last days.”
The plagiarism allegations, documented by an anonymous Palestinian researcher for U.S. academic Norman Finkelstein’s recent book Gaza Gravediggers, claim Sebutinde copied sections from pro-Israel lawyers, commentators, Wikipedia, and BBC News.
