South Africa resumes its genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice tomorrow with a fresh barrage of evidence about attacks on civilians, schools, hospitals and places of worship since the Jewish state began its onslaught in Gaza just over a year ago.
ANC deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane told the Sunday Times “substantial” fresh evidence would be lodged in the second phase of South Africa’s case
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Pretoria initiated the case against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in December last year, saying its assault on Gaza — launched in retaliation for Hamas’s October 7 raid into Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 taken hostage — amounted to genocide against Palestinians.
In January the World Court issued its first order, saying South Africa’s genocide concerns were plausible and ordering Israel, among other things, “to prevent ... killing of members of the [Palestinian] group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group”.
In May the court issued new orders, among them an instruction to Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.
The court has no way to enforce its orders, and Israel has rejected them.
Mokonyane, who heads foreign policy within the ANC, said the South African government would submit first-hand accounts from victims of the war when the case resumes, as well as evidence from experts about malnutrition in Gaza and the risk of polio outbreaks.
“The evidence shows famine, people staying days and months without food, where humanitarian goods were not allowed into Gaza and into any other place where the Palestinians have sought refuge,” she said.
The evidence shows famine, people staying days and months without food, where humanitarian goods were not allowed into Gaza and into any other place where the Palestinians have sought refuge
— Nomvula Mokonyane, ANC deputy secretary-general
“There will be evidence of a mother with three children [and] a newly born baby; she gives birth, they go home. The father goes to get a birth certificate; as the father is going to get a birth certificate, the mother and the newborn baby die… The child died without a birth certificate.”
Mokonyane said South Africa’s wide-ranging submissions to the court would be “a validation of the correct position we have taken, not on behalf of the ANC, but on behalf of humanity”.
She said the submissions would go into the history of the people of Palestine since the 1940s — the state of Israel was created in 1948, the year of the “nakba”, or catastrophe, when Zionists forced tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland.
“There will be additional submissions that come from scientists, that come from people who are in the health sector, that come from experiences of Gift of the Givers that we must be very proud of as a nation and be grateful for. It will be coming from the global anti-apartheid movement...
“Because, again, we have experience, very rich experience, of a global anti-apartheid movement that rallied behind the ANC and the people of South Africa,” Mokonyane said.
“It’s our time now to also do it. We’re quite happy that our government has also gone out to receive information from many other international bodies that substantiate what has actually happened.”
She said the evidence drew heavily from the social media accounts of Palestinians.
“The bigger part of evidence with regard to what is happening in Palestine has not come through formal media platforms,” Mokonyane said, accusing the mainstream media of taking its cue from the Israeli government and failing to present a balanced picture.
“The media has not been fair, has not been good ... Rather than saying ... ‘you’ve invaded their land; you’ve imposed yourself on them’, no-one writes that story.”
She said the ANC was discussing whether South Africa should take action against its citizens who are fighting with the Israeli Defence Force.
Palestinian health authorities in Gaza say more than 40,000 civilians have been killed since Israel launched its offensive.
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