South Africa vs Israel case at the ICJ
Chairpersons of the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation and the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development,
Honourable members of both Committees,
Thank you for providing the Department of International Relations and Cooperation the opportunity to brief you today on the legal proceedings at the International Court of Justice in the South Africa versus Israel matter and also South Africa’s readiness to the host the G20.
As per the guidance of the committee I will deal with the matters to the extent possible.
I am accompanied by Director-General Zane Dangor and colleagues from the Office of the Chief State Law Advisor from DIRCO and the Sous Sherpa of G20 Ambassador Xolisa Mabhongo.
As you may recall, Israel declared a state of war following Hamas’ attacks on 7 October 2023.
We condemned the attacks against civilians and called for the return of the hostages with view these may constitute war crimes.
We continue to advocate for sustainable approach to the protracted conflict that is a substantive process which would address the Palestinian situation in totality.
Over time it has become increasingly clear that Israels response to 7 October, was at the very least disproportionate.
It became apparent that Israels conduct was increasingly genocidal, as is the case today social media and news outlets are awash with genocidal statements of influential office bearers in Israel as well as numerous accounts of critical civilian infrastructure being the target countless bombs.
It is this conduct following the 7 October attacks that prompted South Africa to institute an application against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 29 December 2023, alleging that Israel was responsible for violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) in Gaza. South Africa also requested the Court to indicate provisional measures orders in light of the urgency and gravity of the situation.
South Africa’s actions are in line with the country’s obligations under Article 9 of the Genocide Convention. This Article obligates Contracting States to refer disputes concerning the interpretation or application of the Convention, including those relating to State responsibility for genocide, to the ICJ.
Honourable members,
As we gather here right now Gaza and Palestinians are being wiped off the map.
In this presentation you will hear that we have produced evidence of genocidal statements from prominent members of the Israeli Government, one such statement being:
“Erase the memory of them. Erase them, their families, mothers and children. These animals can no longer live.”
Honourable Members international law and the global system of governance that has been developed after the Second World War is under severe attack, it is important for the global majority who believe in a rules-based system based on the UN Charter and international law to stand up and protect the sanctity of the rule of law.
Should we stand back and remain silent when innocent civilians are killed or starved right before our eyes?
A different question could be Where does impunity end?
Who should ensure that there is no exceptionalism?
Should we accept a world where it is acceptable for over 60 000 people are indiscriminately killed?
What would our silence imply?
Do we find the daily killing of journalists, health care workers and children as well as the violations of international law acceptable?
Do we not believe that preventing a genocide is a shared duty.
As the South Africa Government, we have chosen to act in accordance with our constitutional values and international law obligations.
We have chosen to be on the side of the global majority that has rejected these horrific actions.
Our case was rejected in some quarters as populist, blood libel, meritless and baseless.
Today as we meet here there is growing body of consensus on whether what are all witnessing is indeed consistent with statements of Israeli leaders.
Archbishop Makgoba made the following observation in a Timeslive opinion piece dated 4 September 2025, “In April 2024, Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng — the South African medical doctor serving as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health — warned the Human Rights Council that the health system in Gaza had been “completely obliterated” and that the right to health had been “decimated at every level”.
By October 2024, she had introduced a new term for what she was witnessing — ‘medicide’: the use of military force and state policy to systematically destroy access to medical care. In June 2025, she declared that the right to health in Gaza had become ‘virtually non-existent’.
Two Israeli organisations — B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel — have now produced reports that independently affirm Mofokeng’s findings.”
Honourable members,
I wish to remind you that Vaughn Lowe, Kings Counsel, acting on behalf of the South African government at the ICJ, told the court the following:
“We have heard expressions of outrage that anyone could accuse Israel of acting in this way. We have heard sober assurances that Israel was doing and would do everything in its power to avoid civilian deaths as it exercised its claimed right of self-defence. We have heard boasts that Israel’s army is the most moral army in history. We have heard flat denials that there is famine in Gaza. For months people, particularly in the west, have appeared unwilling to accept that the accusations are true. How could people who look like us and sound like us possibly engage in anything like genocide?”
We offered an answer to the Court as part of pleadings our Ambassador to The Hague, Vusi Madonsela said the following:
“These questions, “stems from a form of amnesia and denial by former colonial powers in relation to the crimes associated with colonial violence perpetrated against indigenous peoples. This includes the denial of genocide. This denial is clearly at play in Palestine.”
This denial of the genocide and the atrocities by Israel and the tacit condonation of these acts have led to the questioning: do some believe that Palestinian lives matter less than other lives.
By extension it begs the question whether the ideologies of superiority that justified colonial conquests, occupations and genocides in Africa and other parts of the world still determine which people are deserving of protection by international human rights law and the international legal framework.
We reiterate that the international community cannot proclaim the importance of international law, including respect for the UN Charter in some situations and not in others.
International legal mechanisms are not only to be used to target Africans and those in the global South. These are universal instruments aimed at justice for all.
Honourable members,
South Africa instituted proceedings before the International Court of Justice to preserve the existence of the Palestinian people as a group, to end all acts of apartheid and genocide against the Palestinian people.
As highlighted by the President in his State of the Nation Address, South Africa acted in accordance with its international obligations by instituting the proceedings against Israel.
The case will continue until the Court makes a finding. The potential outcome could resonate far beyond Israel and Palestine.
In other words, inaction in so far as the conflict is concerned has a direct impact on how international law and international humanitarian law is applied in across the globe in all conflicts that affect people.
South Africa will continue to act within the institutions of global governance to protect the rights, including the fundamental right to life, in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and any part of the world where there are conflicts including in Gaza where Palestinians continue to remain at urgent risk including from Israeli military assault, and to obtain the fair and equal application of international law to all, in the interest of our collective humanity.
Our actions and approach resonate with the views of the global majority, including international civil society groups as well as Israeli and Palestinian analysts.
We have also joined initiatives such as The Hague Group which was established to protect and uphold international obligations to end the illegal Israeli occupation and to support the realisation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including to self-determination and to independence in a sovereign State of Palestine.
We recently co-chaired a meeting of the Group together with Colombia in Bogota where 30 countries participated.
The establishment of the Hague Group, and the recent meeting of the Madrid Group seek the same outcome. To stop the bloodshed, an immediate ceasefire and negotiations towards a just peace.
In conclusion, let me stress that South Africa will continue to strive for the primacy of international law, promote accountability and ensure a just peace.
We will also continue to call for two-states, the State of Palestine and the State of Israel, to exist side by side in peace and security.
As we have said to the UN General Assembly recently, all obstacles to the two-state solution should be removed. This includes:
(a) an immediate ceasefire and a commitment to a peace process.
(b) the release of hostages by Hamas and political prisoners by the state of Israel.
(c) the halting of illegal Israeli settlement expansion.
(d) the removal of the illegal separation wall cutting across the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
(e) the resumption of all internationally reputable humanitarian relief efforts and the reconstruction of Gaza, which of course can only take place once there is peace.
Let me take this opportunity to express our condolences to the victims a terrorist attacks in Jerusalem
I now give the floor to the Director-General to provide further details on the legal proceedings at the ICJ.
I thank you.
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