Lerato Mbhiza
In an emotional outburst where it accused South Africa’s decision to charge them as playing “advocate for the devil”, Israel’s National Security Council said it has decided to appear before the International Court of Justice in the Hague to defend itself against accusations that its continued bombardment of Gaza resultinging in thousands of deaths of Palestinians including women and children, is genocide.
Israel also accused South Africa of supporting Hamas in the war with Israel although President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned the 7 October Hamas attack and has spoken out against violence and called for peace talks in the region.
“The state of Israel emphatically condemns South Africa’s decision to play advocate for the devil and make itself criminally complicit perpetrators of the October 7 massacre. On October 7, South Africa openly aligned itself with the Hamas rapist regime. Collaborating with the perpetrators of genocide is alas not new to South Africa which backed Omar Al Bashir after he was indicted for genocide in Darfur,” said Israel spokesperson, Eylon Levy,
Israel reportedly said in a meeting called by its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that this decision to pre-empt the International Court of Justice from issuing an interim order that will stop Israel’s military operation in Gaza, was taken.
Israel went to war with Hamas after the 7 October attack on its citizens where hostages were taken and some Israeli’s were killed. Ever since Israel has embarked on retaliatory strikes on Gaza allegedly in pursuit of Hamas where hospitals, refugee centres, journalists and even doctors were not spared from the bombs.
South Africa launched the case against Israel on Friday, saying the magnitude of death, destruction and the extent of the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip meets the threshold of the 1948 Genocide Convention under international law
The International Court of Justice will from the 11th to the 12th of January 2024 hear the matter brought by South Africa against Israel.
Director-General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, Zane Dangor, said South Africa is ready to present its case.
“Our reaction is simply we have lodged a complaint with the ICJ in terms of the genocide convention, to prevent or punish the crime of genocide.”
Israel’s onslaught in Gaza has been unprecedented in the century-old Mideast conflict, killing nearly 22,000 Palestinians and leveling large swaths of the tiny Mediterranean territory. Since the war began, Israel has banned entry of food, water, medicine and other supplies to Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people, except for a trickle of aid that the U.N. said falls far below the territory’s needs.
Israel’s War Cabinet was to meet later on Tuesday, Netanyahu’s office said. The agenda reportedly includes a discussion on postwar arrangements for Gaza, a highly polarising issue in Israel.
Until now, Netanyahu has not presented any plan despite repeated U.S. requests. He has rejected proposals that the Palestinian Authority, which currently administers pockets of self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, undergo reforms and then take over administration of Gaza as a precursor to Palestinian statehood.
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