South Africa has accused Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The country has filed an application to the International Court of Justice at the Hague – the United Nations’ court for resolving conflict – calling for an order to halt the Jewish state’s attacks.
But the Israeli government has ‘rejected with disgust’ the accusations, calling it a ‘blood libel’ and accused South Africa of collaborating with Hamas.
The African nation alleges that ‘acts and omissions by Israel… are genocidal in character’ as they are committed with the intent ‘to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group’.
South Africa’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the country is ‘gravely concerned with the plight of civilians caught in the present Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip due to the indiscriminate use of force and forcible removal of inhabitants’.
Israeli soldiers take up positions near the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel today. South Africa has accused Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza
(Pictured: Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip) Israel said it takes steps to minimise harm to civilians
The ministry added that there are ‘ongoing reports of international crimes, such as crimes against humanity and war crimes, being committed as well as reports that acts meeting the threshold of genocide or related crimes as defined in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, have been and may still be committed in the context of the ongoing massacres in Gaza’.
It also asks the court to issue an interim order for Israel to immediately suspend its military operations in Gaza.
A hearing into that request is likely in the coming days or weeks. The case, if it goes ahead, will take years.
South Africa can bring the case under the Genocide Convention because both it and Israel are signatories to the convention.
Israel’s foreign ministry issued a statement in response in which it said the case lacks a legal foundation and constitutes a ‘vile exploitation and cheapening’ of the court.
The statement also said Israel is committed to, and operates according to, international law and focuses its military actions solely against Hamas, adding that the residents of Gaza are not an enemy.
It asserted that it takes steps to minimise harm to civilians and to allow humanitarian aid to enter the territory.
‘Israel rejects with disgust the blood libel spread by South Africa and its application to the International Court of Justice,’ the statement read.
‘South Africa’s claim lacks both a factual and a legal basis, and constitutes despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the court.’
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has previously accused Israel of war crimes and acts ‘tantamount to genocide’
Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said South Africa’s case ‘provides an important opportunity for the International Court of Justice to scrutinise Israel’s actions in Gaza using the Genocide Convention of 1948’.
She said South Africa is looking to the United Nations’ highest judicial body ‘to provide clear, definitive answers on the question of whether Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people’.
Whether the case will succeed in halting the war remains to be seen. While the court’s orders are legally binding, they are not always followed.
In March 2022, the court ordered Russia to halt hostilities in Ukraine, a binding legal ruling that Moscow flouted as it pressed ahead with its devastating attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities.
South Africa has been a fierce critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Many, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, have compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank with South Africa’s past apartheid regime of racial segregation.
Mr Ramaphosa has accused Israel of war crimes and acts ‘tantamount to genocide’.