South Africa confronts Israel's impunity at the International Court of Justice

THIS week, the international community once again stood still and listened to harrowing evidence of Israeli brutality amid its genocidal mission in Gaza and the occupied territories of Palestine, where more than 50 000 people have been killed since October 2023 and more continue to die every hour, week and month.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) held the hearings pursuant to UN General Assembly Resolution 79/232, which requested an Advisory Opinion on the “obligations of Israel in relation to the presence and activities of the United Nations and other international organisations and third states”. The resolution was initiated by Norway and supported overwhelmingly by the UN member states.

Simplified, the UN is keen to hear what legal opinion the highest court in the world can give over what is clearly Israel’s transgression of international law, as an occupying power, in the manner it is annihilating the Palestinians on a daily basis.

Already last year, South Africa led the international community when it took Israel to the same court on charges of genocide against Gaza.

There was a ceasefire subsequently between Israel and Hamas, which resulted in the release of Israeli captives and hordes of Palestinian prisoners, including women and minors.

Israel unilaterally pulled out of the ceasefire deal, and resumed intensified bombardment of anything and everything that moves of the Palestinian territories, particularly the Gaza Strip.

Within only weeks of breaching the ceasefire that was brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar, Israel managed to displace more than 500 000 Palestinians in Gaza alone, and continues to carry out a brutal campaign of murder, arbitrary detentions, wanton maiming and destruction of infrastructure, including homes.

The sheer brutality that continues to befall the Palestinians in general and Gazans in particular led the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, to retort: “Gaza is a killing field. Aid has dried up, the floodgates of horror have reopened.”

This week, South Africa led concerned nations before the ICJ in a desperate bid to bring to the attention and perhaps consciousness of the UN member states the unacceptable impunity with which the Jewish state of Israel appears to disregard its obligations as an occupying power in Palestine under international law.

Led by Zane Dangor, the Director-General of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco), the cry rang loudest through the detailed inhumanity the Palestinians are subjected.

“Israel is blocking food, water, and medicines — all of which are essential to life — from entering Gaza,” Dangor charged. Evidence of the consequences of Israel’s use of intentional starvation as a weapon can be seen on virtually all international networks and social media, characterised by emaciated children who can hardly stand.

Major aid groups and Palestinian NGOs have warned that “Gaza is entering into famine, and that the humanitarian aid system is facing total collapse”. Shortly afterwards, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking from Tel Aviv, revealed that his country’s primary objective was to defeat the enemies of the Jewish state.

The release of the remaining Israeli captives was secondary, according to Netanyahu, who is under constant domestic pressure to secure the release of the remaining captives. Refusal to do so, or delay, prolongs the war with Hamas, and in the same vein, extends Netanyahu’s term of office.

The war-mongering Prime Minister knows too well that peace with Hamas will take focus to his day in court on corruption-related charges, a date in court kept in abeyance only by the continuation of the bombardment of the Palestinians.

On April 11, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that Israel “appears to be inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life increasingly incompatible with their continued existence as a group in Gaza”, Dangor quoted from his report before the attentive ICJ.

Dangor was scathing in his presentation. He said: “Under the world’s watchful eye, Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory are being subjected to atrocity crimes, persecution, apartheid and genocide.” He further said: “While we watch, the gaze of Palestinians is directed squarely at the international community, and this Court — whose advice is urgently being sought, for the protection of their most fundamental rights, including the right to life.”

Dangor also pointed out that “Israel continues to act with impunity as it does enjoy some form of exceptionalism from accountability to international law and norms. Conversely, any person or entity which seeks to hold Israel to account for its inhumane and unlawful actions is subjected to counter-measures and censure, from which the United Nations and this Court have not been spared.”

Diplomatic decorum prevented Dangor from calling a spade a spade. The US has been critical of the ICJ and ICC over their utterances on Israel’s conduct in its war against Hamas. South Africa, vilified by Israel with the support of the US, has had its ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool.

Declared persona non grata and sent packing in the most unceremonious manner. Geopolitical observers believe Washington’s growing antagonism toward South Africa is largely over Pretoria’s guts to haul the untouchable Israel before the ICJ.

Israel has outlawed the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) after accusing the body of being a Hamas vehicle. Brazen as ever, Tel Aviv also declared the UN Chief Guterres a persona non grata. In the UN Security Council meeting, Israeli officials could be seen undiplomatically tearing apart the UN Charter, claiming it favours Hamas and other Israeli enemies such as Iran.

Dangor argued at The Hague this week: “UNRWA is being attacked in furtherance of Israel’s goal to deny the inalienable right of return of Palestinian refugees, the resolution of their land, homes and property appropriated since 1948, and to further its apartheid policies and practices.”

UNRWA was established after the 1948 Nakba with the aim of ensuring that the rights of Palestinians are not eroded in the wake of Israel’s triumph over the vanquished Palestinians. The attacks on UNRWA, which nearly collapsed last year when pro-Israel Western nations abruptly withdrew their funding of the body following Israel’s false allegations that UNRWA was Hamas, have never stopped. “The attacks on UNRWA are also, deliberately, imperilling the existence of Palestinians as a group,” Dangor argued.

During the same hearings, the US predictably attempted to cast aspersions over the integrity of UNRWA. Theirs, of course, was a lonely yet powerful voice that has insulated Israel from any form of harm internationally.

South Africa deserves nothing but great praise for its foreign policy stance on the Palestinian question. It is morally correct to stand on the side of the weak against the powerful. There may be serious repercussions to endure, but through the passage of time, history will be kind to those like Pretoria who stand on the correct side of humanity.

The plight of Palestinians has been made more unbearable by the deafening silence of the majority of the international community, notably the European Union, the Scandinavian bloc and the rest of the Global South, particularly the Arab League.

The Palestine issue single-handedly exposes what is wrong with our global governance system. The wealthiest with the strongest militaries are downright untouchable. The so-called developing nations are pawns in greater geopolitical games. The UN appear to have long lost the aura of multilateralism and a general consensus mechanism. There are different sets of rules. One for Israel and her handlers in Washington and “free loaders” in the EU, the other for Palestine and the madding crowd of the Majority World.

The price to pay for standing against Israeli genocide in Gaza might be too heavy, but it is a price worth bearing in the name of humanity, justice, freedom and peace. South Africa’s efforts in shining the light on Israel’s brutality over the Palestinians are one of ensuring that the international community will one day say “we didn’t know”. Pretoria and others are creating records for the benefit of history. When judgment day comes, let no one say in self-defence: “We never knew.”

* Abbey Makoe is Founder and Editor-in-Chief: Global South Media Network (gsmn.co.za). The views expressed are personal.

** The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Sunday Independent, Independent Media, or IOL.