What the ICJ Case Towards Israel Means for South Africa

Some commentators have argued that by supposedly “selecting sides,” South Africa has decreased its potential to be an impartial mediator within the Israel-Palestine battle. However South Africa has been vocal in its assist for mediation efforts that might convey a few cease-fire. In November, for instance, Ramaphosa praised Qatar for its main place in negotiating for the discharge of hostages held by Hamas.

South Africa’s assist for Palestine has deep roots. Nelson Mandela was a detailed pal of Yasser Arafat. On considered one of his first overseas visits, simply 16 days after he was launched from jail on Robben Island in 1990, Mandela was embraced by Arafat in Lusaka, Zambia. Three months later, Mandela attended a summit in Algiers carrying the Palestinian keffiyeh. And in 1997, throughout his presidency, Mandela famously mentioned, “Our freedom is incomplete with out the liberty of the Palestinians.” 

To pay tribute to Mandela, an enormous statue was unveiled in Ramallah in 2016. Ramallah’s then-mayor, Mussa Hadid, mentioned the statue “symbolizes the shared struggling” of the South African and Palestinian peoples. The location of the statue was additionally the location of celebrations the night time earlier than the ICJ hearings began in The Hague in January, when Palestinians gathered to publicly thank South Africa for litigating on its behalf. By going to the ICJ on Palestinians’ behalf, South Africa has put Arab governments to disgrace, as they talk about solidarity however do little to really defend Palestinian rights.

With elections looming in South Africa later this 12 months, the ANC is susceptible to dropping its majority in parliament for the primary time for the reason that finish of apartheid. Many South Africans are worrying extra about longstanding home issues of corruption, service supply and sky-high youth unemployment than any overseas coverage problem, together with Palestine. Though tens of 1000’s of South Africans have taken to the streets to protest Israel’s struggle in Gaza, South African society remains to be sharply polarized, with a big proportion of the inhabitants that helps Israel and sharply opposes the federal government’s stance.

Throughout a go to to the West Financial institution and Gaza within the aftermath of Israel’s 2014 struggle in Gaza, Operation Protecting Edge, many politicians and policymakers I spoke to, Palestinian and Israeli, lamented the absence of visionary management amongst each Palestinians and Israelis, a Mandela-like determine who might convey them nearer collectively. However it’s useful to recollect South Africa. “I was terribly pessimistic concerning the state of affairs in South Africa,” John Dugard, the South African former U.N. particular rapporteur for human rights within the Palestinian territory, who now leads the authorized workforce for South Africa within the ICJ case, mentioned in a speech in 2021. “I at all times believed that civil struggle was inevitable. However then, sanity prevailed, sensible males got here to their senses, and a miracle occurred. In South Africa, apartheid was deserted and we introduced a constitutional democracy as an alternative.”

“Palestine is the land of miracles,” he added, “and one hopes {that a} related miracle will happen.”