In a notorious bid, Nelson Mandela’s South Africa has joined hands with terror organization Hamas and asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to issue urgent order declaring that Israel was in breach of its obligations under the Genocide Convention in its ongoing crackdown against Hamas in Gaza.
In a statement from South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) quoted by Reuters, the government said the application against Israel was filed on December 29, 2023.
According to ICJ, South Africa accuses Israel of being “in violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention” in its application and argues that “acts and omissions by Israel … are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent … to destroy Palestinians in Gaza”.
It may be mentioned here that anti-Israel sentiments remain prevalent in South Africa, similarly as majority of the Muslim nations, where the government has frequently accused Israel of applying a policy of “apartheid” towards Palestinian Arabs. The tensions have been on the rise since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
Condemning such notorious act of the South African authorities, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement said:
Israel rejects with disgust the blood libel spread by South Africa and its application to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
South Africa’s claim lacks both a factual and a legal basis, and constitutes despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the Court.
South Africa is cooperating with a terrorist organization that is calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.
The Hamas terrorist organization – which is committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and tried to commit genocide on 7 October – is responsible for the suffering of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by using them as human shields and stealing humanitarian aid from them.
Israel is committed to international law and acts in accordance with it, and directs its military efforts only against the Hamas terrorist organization and the other terrorist organizations cooperating with Hamas.
Israel has made it clear that the residents of the Gaza Strip are not the enemy, and is making every effort to limit harm to the non-involved and to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip.
We call on the International Court of Justice and the international community to completely reject South Africa’s baseless claims.
South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) pressed petition with ICJ hours after The New York Times in a report has exposed nefarious acts of sexual crimes committed by Hamas terrorists on Israeli girls and women. This NYT report was followed by a video testimony of a victim of Hamas notoriety, which went viral on social media platforms.
Deep tunnels, explosions and testimonials
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has released several evidences centering tunnels of Hamas’ general headquarters located and destroyed in the northern Gaza Strip: in the tunnels was an electricity network, ventilation and sewage infrastructure, prayer rooms and resting rooms.
In recent weeks, the 14th Reserve Brigade Combat Team, under the command of the 162nd Division, located and destroyed one of the hideout apartments of the Leader of the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar. The apartment was located near Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip, with many findings inside.
Soldiers of the Yahalom Unit examined the apartment using additional technological means, and discovered that a strategic tunnel shaft was located on the basement floor. The soldiers inspected the tunnel shaft and reached a significant tunnel that is apparently used by the senior officials of Hamas’ Military and Political Wing.
The apartment is part of a long and branching tunnel network, in which senior officials of the Hamas terrorist organization moved and operated. The tunnel shaft that was located in the northern Gaza Strip led to a 218-meter-long tunnel, with a depth of about 20 meters. Located in the tunnel was an electrical network, ventilation and sewage infrastructure, hideout materials, prayer rooms and resting rooms. The tunnel was built so that it would be possible to stay inside it and conduct combat from it for long periods of time.
At the end of the examination and the operational activity conducted along the tunnel route, the tunnel was destroyed by the soldiers of the Yahalom Unit.
Here is footage of the examination and revealing the tunnels’ route by the soldiers of the Yahalom Unit.
Here is footage from the destruction of the tunnels in the area of Hamas’ general headquarters.
Attached is a sync of the Commanding Officer of the 14th Brigade, COL Tal Alkobi.
Here is an infographic regarding the tunnel route.
South Africa’s anti-Israel stance alarms Jewish population
In the African continent, South Africa is the home to largest Jewish community, while according to the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), the umbrella representative and civil rights group of the South African Jewish community, between 56,000 and 60,000 Jews live in South Africa. In a country with a population of around 60 million, this is only a small fraction. Nevertheless, it’s the largest Jewish community on the African continent and the twelfth largest in the world.
The majority of South Africa’s Jewish population lives in Glenhazel and other areas of Johannesburg. Smaller communities can also be found in Cape Town, Durban and other parts of the country.
The history of Jewish immigration in South Africa began centuries ago, with Jewish people among the passengers on board the ships of Portuguese explorers and Dutch traders. But Jewish immigration to Africa’s southernmost country really took off under British colonial rule.
Starting at the end of the 19th century increasing numbers of Eastern European Jews fled pogroms in their home countries, mainly from Lithuania, and found their way to South Africa. After the Nazis seized power in Germany, some Jewish Germans also managed to escape to Africa. During World War II, South Africa’s Jewish community is said to have reached its peak at 120,000 people.
In 1948, the white supremacist National Party established the apartheid regime in South Africa. Jews were classified as “white,” and could benefit from the highest level of civil rights. Despite this advantage, a disproportionately high number of Jews opposed the unjust apartheid regime, said the SAJBD’s Milner.
“Many of the anti-apartheid activists were influenced by their own experience or those of their parents during the pogroms in Eastern Europe or the Holocaust,” she said. They included writer Nadine Gordimer, Albie Sachs — who would later be appointed to the Constitutional Court — and civil rights activist Denis Goldberg, whose grandparents came from Lithuania.
Goldberg, who died in 2020, was a member of the South African Communist Party and co-founder of the South African Congress of Democrats, an organization of predominantly white left-wing democratically oriented members. He was arrested in 1963 and sentenced to four life sentences, and eventually released from prison in 1985.
Goldberg served as technical officer in the armed wing of the African National Congress, the political party of South Africa’s first Black head of state, Nelson Mandela.
The ANC, which has been in power since the collapse of the apartheid regime in 1994, has continued to describe Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian population in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip as apartheid, comparable to apartheid in South Africa.
The ANC always maintained links with Palestinian groups such as the Palestinian Liberation Organization under Yasser Arafat. Recently, it took days for the South African government to condemn the October 7 attacks by the Islamist militant group Hamas, which claimed some 1,200 lives in Israel — even though South African nationals were among those murdered and kidnapped.
Unlike Israel, Germany, the United States and the European Union, and other countries, South Africa does not classify Hamas as a terrorist organization. Hamas is even rumored to have an office in Cape Town. As African continent is facing continuous threats from several Islamist terrorist groups including Islamic State, Al Qaeda, Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram, taking advantage of South Africa’s anti-Israel stance, Hamas now may start expanding its footprint in the country – including its military and business bases thus using South African soil in growing its capabilities of targeting Jews and allies of Israel – including the United States and spread its web of terror in the Western nations. In this case, once Hamas forms an alliance with other Islamist terror outfits in Africa, this Gaza-based terrorist group shall pose far-bigger threat than Al Qaeda and ISIS to the entire world.
