It is time we hold Israel accountable for its misdeeds because no country can be above the law
Part III
However, if the judges apply their minds independently and indeed fulfil their mandates to uphold international law as respected jurists, then I am confident that the decision must go South Africa’s way. This would open up a path not only to halting the current ongoing killings but also to finding a lasting solution for the Palestinians in the near future. We will have to wait and see. The case for the urgent application as put forward by the South Africans is compelling. Splitting the two complaints – the urgent application as preceding the substantive question, has improved the chance of success. Most international legal experts that have looked at the document agree that it will be very difficult for Israel and its legal team to argue anything different. No sane person disagrees that the attacks on October 7 (2023) by Hamas was brutal in its execution and involved innocent Israeli citizens. And though international law permits a people that are occupied to be able to resist such occupation, Hamas at some point will also have to account for what it did. This however, cannot ever justify the type of response we have seen over the last three months in Gaza specifically but also the West Bank. Thus far, more than 22000 Palestinians have been murdered through the use of organised violence meted out against them by the IDF. Infrastructure, ports, rail, roads, universities, schools, churches and hospitals have all been annihilated and reduced to rubble. What could possibly be the reason for such if not to ensure that no life form must again occupy such spaces? The systematic killing of professionals such as doctors, nurses, teachers, journalists and many more, with what aim exactly, I ask you? As if to ensure that as a people you will have to rebuild both physically, psychologically and intellectually as a people. Does this not speak to a hidden agenda of ethnic cleansing?
The final consequence worth reflecting on will happen, I fear, regardless of the decision of the Court. I think South Africa will be targeted for the stand it has taken against Israel. A low intensity plan will unfold to destabilise South Africa’s economy, followed with all manner of diplomatic restraints which will undoubtedly target our diplomats in certain countries in the north. Bilateral agreements will come under the spotlight and so much more. The message will be clear: never again must any country think they can challenge the global north in such a manner. It is equally important to state that the reason why many western countries see no problem with what Israel is doing is because they know that their respective wealth, power and privileges in this world were obtained through western settler colonial projects all over the world, just like the Israeli one. Beside their collective guilt in having allowed that ghastly atrocity called the holocaust, they also know that not supporting Israel means that they too can be called out for their atrocities of the past. The Europeans know that they would be opening themselves up for criticism for their ghastly settler colonial projects in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. We all know the dreadful details of Zaire, Namibia, India, to mention but a few.
It is therefore imperative to hail South Africa for its courage and fortitude in expressing its solidarity with Palestine in this manner. It is befitting indeed that it is South Africa that brought such an application to the ICJ given our own recent history of settler colonial apartheid. It must be stated, though obvious to the casual observer, our struggle for liberation in South Africa was also brutal and oppressive but we South Africans can confidently tell you what our Palestinian brothers and sisters are experiencing under Apartheid Israel is much worse.The level of organised violence meted out against the Palestinians is far worse than what we experienced in Apartheid South Africa. As Andrew Feinstein points out, perhaps South Africa took a different turn to Israel in the 1990s, because in our case the oppressor needed our cheap and abundant labour whereas in the case of the Palestinians, Israel does not need anything from the Palestinians except to simply not exist.
All I can say at this point is: all the very best to the South Africa delegation in the Hague – we are proud of you, your principled stand and rigorous legal argument. Let us halt the banality of evil.May the court apply its mind impartially and help to bring to an end the last outpost of a settler colonial power in the Middle East.
Dr . Oscar Van Heerden
Scholar of International Relation IR
This article will also appear in News 24, South Africa