Cape City, South Africa – Final week, South Africa took the unprecedented step of asking the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to rule on whether or not the continuing violence and humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Gaza quantities to genocide.
South Africa’s stance in opposition to Israel has puzzled many inside and outdoors each nations, together with those that welcomed the transfer.
However South Africa has been unequivocal in its assist of the Palestinian trigger for years, regardless of opposition from the white-majority Democratic Alliance (DA), South Africa’s largest opposition.
To totally perceive Pretoria’s passionate assist for the Palestinian trigger, one should first perceive the connection between the late Nelson Mandela and the African Nationwide Congress with Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Group, analysts say.
Each organizations supported one another’s causes and Mandela as soon as described Arafat as a “brother in arms” in a tv interview in the US in 1990.
“After we had been beneath apartheid, the Palestinian individuals confirmed solidarity with us,” stated political analyst Levy Ndou. “Keep in mind, we solely got here out of apartheid 30 years in the past, and we all know what it did to us, and once we see human rights abuses like what is occurring in Israel, we’ve to take motion.”
On January 14, the ANC celebrated the 112th anniversary of its founding as a liberation motion. Throughout the annual celebration that often units the political tone and agenda for the nation for the yr, Ramaphosa reiterated the occasion’s place on the Palestinian situation.
“The ANC has at all times stood aspect by aspect with the Palestinian individuals of their battle
for self-determination as a result of they too, similar to earlier than 1994, are confronted with a
brutal apartheid regime. President Nelson Mandela famously said this
freedom as South Africa was incomplete with out the liberty of Palestine.”
A shared outrage
In its 84-page submission to the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice, South Africa argues that Israel is violating its legal guidelines
obligations beneath the 1948 Geneva Conventions for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
The ANC has additionally reiterated its name for a direct ceasefire within the assault on the nation
Gaza, opening corridors in order that humanitarian support can attain the individuals inside
pressing want and the discharge of hostages and political prisoners. However the nation – and Ramaphosa – have additionally known as for a two-state resolution, respecting the 1967 borders.
On the house entrance, the occasion management has argued to its supporters that since South Africans lived in a “free and democratic society” for 30 years after the autumn of apartheid, the duty to assist Palestine is critical.
“We’re shaking with indignation as we witness the injustice in opposition to the Palestinian individuals,” Ramaphosa informed occasion supporters in January.
His outrage is shared.
Ndou informed Al Jazeera that the nation and its individuals nonetheless “carry the scars of apartheid”
that almost all of South Africans consider that the individuals of Palestine deserve their rights
freedom too.
For the reason that October 7 Hamas assault and the bombing of Gaza, South Africans
from all walks of life have held every day vigils and protest marches, placing strain on Ramaphosa’s authorities to behave. A number of activist teams, together with Africa4Palestine, additionally demanded concrete motion, together with chopping diplomatic ties with Israel.
The catastrophe reduction nonprofit Reward of the Givers Basis, which has places of work in components of Africa and the Center East, stated it has 1000’s of vehicles, medics and support staff on standby to enter Gaza if humanitarian support will increase is allowed into the enclave.
In November, a movement by the left-wing Financial Freedom Fighters (EFF) to shut the Israeli embassy in South Africa was handed by the nation’s parliament. Pemmy Majodina, the chief of the ANC, informed parliament that the nation ought to droop all diplomatic relations with Israel till a ceasefire was agreed and Israel dedicated to binding negotiations with the United Nations.
Properly-known anti-apartheid activist, politician and scientist Allan Boesak informed Al Jazeera that the ICJ’s motion was the results of sustained strain from the individuals of South Africa.
“The Worldwide Courtroom of Justice case is a superb factor, and aside from the credit score to the South African authorities, the credit score should additionally go to the individuals,” he stated. “We had been on the streets for weeks earlier than Ramaphosa and the federal government even considered doing something.”
Others say the case represents a transparent stand to get the worldwide group to lastly take motion within the battle.
“This continent stood as much as mighty Israel; we bought up and that is because of Cyril [Ramaphosa], [foreign minister] And the woman [Pandor]and the federal government,” Imtiaz Sooliman, head of Reward of the Givers, informed Al Jazeera.
He stated the West typically views Africa as a “backward continent” with out the flexibility to contribute or lead significant change. On this foundation and given Israel’s robust place as a navy, financial and cultural superpower, South Africa has been brave in going to the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice, he stated.
“Do not forget that whenever you tackle Israel, you’re taking on the Zionist capital economically,” Sooliman added.
Altruism or opportunism?
Tel Aviv has stated Pretoria is performing because the authorized arm of Hamas. A US official known as the lawsuit “meritless, counterproductive and fully with none factual foundation.”
Domestically, Ramaphosa’s intentions are beneath scrutiny, whilst there may be overwhelming assist for South Africa’s actions.
The previous freedom fighter and commerce unionist was additionally a protege of Mandela, who reportedly selected him as his successor in 1999 earlier than ruling occasion politics bought in his manner.
And now among the president’s critics have stated he’s attempting to mannequin his overseas coverage stance on the Mandela mannequin so he may be seen as a statesman.
Different commentators have identified that Ramaphosa’s authorities, beneath hearth for poor financial efficiency, crippling energy outages and public sector corruption, is opportunistic relatively than completely altruistic on the Palestinian situation.
The nation is about to carry main elections in Could or June this yr, and a number of other opinion polls present that assist for the ANC is beneath 50 % for the primary time in historical past. This has raised the true chance that the nation must type a coalition with one other occasion to remain in energy.
The Financial Freedom Fighters (EFF), based a decade in the past by Julius Malema, a former ANC youth chief, have been a thorn within the aspect of the ruling occasion, together with harassing Ramaphosa in parliament in June 2022 over allegations that he tried to cowl up the theft of weapons. money from his recreation farm.
However, the thought of ​​an ANC-ANC coalition has been floated earlier than the election, with the DA already asking voters to reject the partnership.
Nonetheless, a number of analysts deny that Ramaphosa is merely attempting to spice up his profile, whilst some acknowledge that the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice case has boosted his picture overseas and given him a short lived reprieve at house whereas he’s celebrated overseas.
“This [ICJ case] was a principled ethical stand, and it’s important that the residents of this nation stand behind our authorities,” Sooliman informed Al Jazeera. “I do know some individuals will discuss concerning the elections and the ANC being opportunistic, however the relationship between SA and Palestine didn’t begin on October 7.”
But there’s a sense that widespread assist for the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice’s trigger won’t wane, whatever the authorities’s purpose. Certainly, a surge in assist may very well be anticipated as South Africa, weary of corruption scandals and different challenges, enjoys an increase in goodwill on a worldwide scale that won’t have been seen for the reason that marketing campaign to finish apartheid within the Eighties and early Nineteen Nineties. Earlier this week, the ICJ’s authorized workforce returned to a rousing welcome at Johannesburg airport.
Zubeida Jaffer, a Cape City-based commentator and journalist who was deeply concerned in resistance politics throughout apartheid within the Western Cape province, stated: “We had been surprised for some time, however now we all of the sudden see what we’ve fought so laborious for. , and apartheid South Africa has given the world the phrase apartheid.
“We [have now given] the world a fierce willpower to face up for justice and rise up for what is true.”
