Cape Town - The international communities unwillingness to hold Israel accountable for its policies and practices and its failure to ensure immediate, unconditional and total withdrawal of Israeli troops in Gaza, and an immediate end to Israeli occupation and apartheid in Palestine, has emboldened Israel to cross a further threshold, namely to commit the crimes of crimes - genocide.
These were the words of SA ambassador to The Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela in front of a 15-strong bench of judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) yesterday.
South Africa is among about 52 states and three international organisations scheduled to participate in public hearings on the request for an advisory opinion to examine the legality of Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestine.
The hearings relate to the request for an advisory opinion on “The Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”, that will run until February 26.
The hearings opened on Monday, with Palestine the first state to deliver its oral statements, followed by South Africa.
“Moreover, it’s clear that Israel’s illegal occupation is also being administered in breach of the prohibition of the crime of apartheid. It’s indistinguishable from settler colonialism, which has no place in the 21st century. Israeli apartheid must end,” Madonsela said.
Palestinians were also subjected to routine house raids, with thousands of adults and children unlawfully and arbitrarily arrested, and Palestinian refugees and exiles systematically denied their right to return.
“South Africa beseeches this court to examine the institutionalised regime of discriminatory laws, policies and practices applied by Israel along the definition of the crime of apartheid and to find that Israel subjects Palestinians to what constitutes an apartheid regime.”
Adding to SA’s statements was advocate André Stemmet, who focused on the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
“It is clear that Israel has turned the temporary nature of the occupation into a permanent situation in violation of the Palestinian right to self-determination.
“It has done this through its illegal settlement enterprise which now consists of an estimated 700 000 settlers, an increase of 235% since the Oslo Peace Accords and 165% since the Wall (advisory) opinion,” Stemmet said.
“In the absence of self-determination, it was impossible for a people to realise a plethora of other rights.
“These advisory proceedings present this honourable court with the opportunity to assist in bringing about the immediate and unconditional end to the ongoing, unlawful violation of the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.”