Justice Minister Ronald Lamola is confident that South Africa will win its genocide case against Israel after the African country’s legal team presented a “compelling argument” at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague last week.
Speaking after returning home on Sunday, Lamola said Israel had “dismally failed” in its defence against the genocide accusations before the ICJ.
“We believe that we have presented a compelling legal argument for the court to find in our favour,” Lamola said.
He added: “We also anticipated some of the arguments from the state of Israel, in particular the one of self-defence. That will not apply to Israel as an occupier.”
South Africa filed a lawsuit against Israel in late December 2023 in which it accused Tel Aviv of committing “genocidal acts” in a war that was triggered by the 7 October 2023 incursion into southern Israel by Hamas militants who killed at least 1,200 people.
Israel has responded with brutal force, resulting in the indiscriminate killing of over 20,000 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children.
Lamola said there “was jurisprudence in that effect of the court” as South Africa had condemned the actions of Hamas on 7 October.
Israel denied the accusations at the ICJ, saying it was Hamas who committed genocide against its people and Tel Aviv was only acting in “self-defence” in the daily bombing and killing of dozens of Palestinians.
South Africa’s call for an immediate end to the fighting in Gaza was an attempt to prevent Israel from defending itself, the Israeli legal team argued.
