KUALA LUMPUR: Professor Malcolm Shaw, the British lawyer representing Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), became the subject of amusement after a video of him fumbling over his papers went viral on social media yesterday.
The international law professor, who was arguing South Africa's accusations of genocide against Israel for the latter's ongoing attacks on Gaza, had to stop his statement speech multiple times after "someone" had apparently mixed up his papers.
A short video clip of the proceedings showed Shaw flipping through his papers in the middle of his argument after finding that his pages were not in order.
"Excuse me… I've lost a page," he said.
The same happened several minutes later which caused him to stop once again.
"Someone has shuffled my papers," he said as he attempted to stay on track in front of sitting ICJ judges in The Hague on Friday.
While the clip drew various comments on social media, a number of Malaysian social media users were quick to point out that Shaw, described as "a leading expert on territorial disputes and a published author on the law of genocide", had previously represented Malaysia in another case.
Shaw, 76, was part of the team of lawyers who represented Malaysia in the Pulau Batu Putih or Pedra Branca case revision in 2017, led by then-attorney-general Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali.
On Feb 2, 2017, Malaysia had applied to the ICJ for the revision of the 2008 judgment awarded sovereignty over Pulau Batu Putih to Singapore.
The application for the review was however withdrawn when the Pakatan Harapan government came into power in 2018.
The Times of Israel on Jan 5 reported that Shaw, 76, is a human rights expert, who has represented countries including United Arab Emirates, Serbia and Cameroon at the international court.
He is one of four lawyers chosen to represent Israel at the hearings.
South Africa on Thursday accused Israel of breaching the UN Genocide Convention, saying that even the deadly Oct 7 Hamas attack could not justify such alleged actions, as it opened a case at the top UN court.
Pretoria has lodged an urgent appeal to the ICJ to force Israel to "immediately suspend" its military operations in Gaza.
Malaysia yesterday said it would continue to support South Africa in its legal action against Israel at the ICJ.
The Foreign Ministry said Malaysia as a State Party to the Genocide Convention, calls on Israel to respect international law and immediately end its atrocities against the Palestinians.