South Africa is confident that it has presented a strong exceptional case at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Netherlands, as the court today heard the first leg of the case by South Africa against Israel.
Pretoria want the court to issue a declaration to stop Israel from committing genocide in Gaza and stop attacking the enclave.
The country was represented by Professor John Dugard, Adila Hassim SC, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC, Max Du Plessis SC, and were assisted by other local and international legal counsels.
The SA mission was led by Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, SA Ambassador to The Netherlands, Vusimuzi Madonsela, senior officials from the department and its local and international team of legal experts.
Briefing the media outside the court, Lamola expressed confidence that the country’s legal team presented a strong case.
“We cannot want to overtake the court’s role and second guess it. But we believe that we have presented a compelling case, facts, and international law. There’s clear jurisprudence with regards to the case and the facts that we have presented. Our lawyers have also quoted extensively on international jurisprudence,” explained Lamola.
The minister said as a signatory of the Geneva Convention, South Africa has a duty to prevent genocide, which didn’t only begin on 7 October 2023.
“The Palestinians have experienced systematic operation and violence for the last 76 years, on 6 October 2023 and every day since 7 October 2023.
As a contracting party to the convention, this is a commitment we owe to the people of Palestine and Israelis alike. In the Gaza Strip at least since 2004, Israel continues to exercise control over the airspace, territorial waters, land crossing, water, electricity, civilian infrastructure, as well as key government functions; entry and exit by air and sea to Gaza is strictly prohibited,” said Lamola.
South Africa’s legal representative Adila Cassim SC made her presentation on the genocidal acts committed by Israel.
“South Africa contends that Israel has transgressed article 2 of the convention by committing actions that fall within the definition of genocide. The actions show systematic pattern of conduct of from which genocide can be inferred.
The first genocidal committed by Israel, is the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, in violation of article 2 (a) of the Genocide Convention. As I stand before you today, 23 210 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during the sustained attacks over the last three months, at least 70% of whom are believed to be women and children. Some 7000 Palestinians are still missing, presumed dead under the rubble,” argued Cassim.
Meanwhile, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi outlined South Africa’s court challenge, by presenting the intent of the Israel government.
He argued that the Israeli government, especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, issued direct instructions for soldiers to annihilate Palestinians.
“The targeting of family homes and civilian infrastructure, laying waste to vast areas of Gaza, the bombing, shelling, and sniping of man and women where they stand. The destruction of a health infrastructure and lack of access to humanitarian assistance. As we stand today, 1% of the Palestinian population in Gaza has been systematically decimated, and one in four Gazans have been injured since 7 October. These two elements alone are capable of evidencing Israel’s genocidal intent in relation to the whole or part of the Palestinian population in Gaza,” said Ngcukaitobi. Israel will present its case on Friday.
