Former public protector Thuli Madonsela says she hopes Israel’s legal team, arguing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday in response to a genocide charge it has labelled “hypocrisy levelled by SA over the Gaza war”, will concentrate on the prolonged war instead of those who dragged them to court.
SA approached the ICJ at The Hague, Netherlands, in December, asking it to order the suspension of military operations in Gaza, arguing that Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinians. The first hearing of the case was on Thursday, when six lawyers made presentations for SA.
The spotlight has now shifted to Israel’s lawyers, who will respond to the genocide charge.
Madonsela said she hoped Israel, in its defence, would focus on the Gaza war and not on SA.
“I hope Israel will play the ball, not the player. SA’s motivation or affinities are immaterial,” Madonsela said in the wake of Israel lambasting SA for bringing the case.
“SA’s legal team was exemplary in sticking to what international law says on genocide,” she said. The SA team had analysed the legal situation carefully, applied the law to the to the facts, reached a firm conclusion, and made recommendations for provisional relief.
“Israel should do the same and eschew insults.”
Israeli foreign affairs minister Lior Haiat has described SA’s case against his country as one of the “greatest shows of hypocrisy in history”.
“SA, which is functioning as the legal arm of the Hamas terrorist organisation, utterly distorted the reality in Gaza after the October 7 massacre and completely ignored the fact that Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel [and] murdered, executed, massacred, raped and abducted Israeli citizens, simply because they were Israelis, in an attempt to carry out genocide,” Haiat said.
However, in its application to the court, SA stated that it condemned the violations of international law by all parties, including the direct targeting of Israeli civilians and other nationals, as well as the hostage-taking by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.
Justice minister Ronald Lamola denied Israel’s claims that in bringing the case, the country intended to protect Hamas.
“We have presented a case on behalf of the government of the Republic of SA, and we are doing so on behalf of a number of Palestinians — children, women and the elderly — who are being killed in Gaza. We are not presenting any case on behalf of Hamas. We do not have any mandate from Hamas,” Lamola said.
“Our case is not against the Jews as the people — it is against the [genocidal] actions of the state of Israel that are [being] committed in Gaza.”
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