At ICJ hearing, Pretoria claims Israel ‘apartheid’ against Palestinians worse than in South Africa
Israel is applying an even more extreme version of apartheid against Palestinians in the West Bank than South Africa had against Blacks before 1994, Pretoria claims to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
“We as South Africans sense, see, hear and feel to our core the inhumane discriminatory policies and practices of the Israeli regime as an even more extreme form of the apartheid that was institutionalized against Black people in my country,” says Vusimuzi Madonsela, South Africa’s ambassador to the Netherlands, where the world’s top court is based.
An unprecedented 52 countries are taking the stand at the ICJ, which has been asked to provide a non-binding “advisory opinion” on the “legal consequences” of Israel’s 56-year rule in the territories. Israel has long rejected all claims that it is perpetrating any form of apartheid.
“It is clear that Israel’s illegal occupation is also being administered in breach of the crime of apartheid… It is indistinguishable from settler colonialism. Israel’s apartheid must end,” says Madonsela.
He says South Africa has a “special obligation” to call out apartheid wherever it occurs and ensure it is “brought to an immediate end.”
The case is separate from the high-profile case brought by Pretoria against Israel for alleged “genocide” during its current offensive in Gaza sparked by the October 7 onslaught by the Hamas terror group.
Israel is not participating in the oral hearings but sent a written contribution in which it described the questions the court had been asked as “prejudicial” and “tendentious.”
Yesterday, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry denounced the day’s hearing after it concluded, alleging the Palestinian Authority was “trying to turn a conflict that should be resolved through direct negotiations and without external impositions into a one-sided and improper legal process.”
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.