Originally published in The Jerusalem Post
Israel accused South Africa on Thursday of acting “as the legal arm of Hamas” after Pretoria again petitioned the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take measures against Israel.
A South African government spokesperson dismissed the accusation.
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“South Africa continues to act as the legal arm of Hamas in an attempt to undermine Israel’s inherent right to defend itself and its citizens, and to release all of the hostages,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said.
“The repeated requests for provisional measures made by South Africa in order to assist Hamas are yet another cynical exploitation of the International Court of Justice in the Hague, which has already twice rejected the baseless attempts to deny Israel its right and obligation of self-defence,” it said.
Clayson Monyela, a spokesperson for South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, said: “South Africa has spelled out its concerns in its application to the ICJ. They (Israel) know what they are doing. It is absurd to keep saying that South Africa is acting on behalf of Hamas.”
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South Africa in January asked the World Court to declare that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and to order Israel to stop its military campaign in Gaza. The court did not do this but instead issued a more general order that Israel must make sure it prevents acts of genocide.
South Africa is now asking the top UN court to order further steps against Israel, which it said was breaching measures already in place. It said those in Gaza were facing starvation and asked the court to order that all parties cease hostilities and release all hostages and detainees.
“Israel acts and will continue to act in accordance with international law, including by facilitating humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, regardless of any legal proceedings,” the Israeli ministry said. “We call on the ICJ to reject outright the new request of the representatives of Hamas.”
In a report published by The Jerusalem Post yesterday, a senior IDF official is quoted as saying that contrary to recent UN and world media reports of imminent famine in Gaza, there is no food shortage in the strip — but there are hungry individuals who cannot afford the food due to Hamas seizing food supplies and selling food at exorbitant rates.
Hamas controls an enormous amount of food and aid. If it had allowed the citizens of Gaza to have access to this aid, the situation would have been very different – but they don’t care about their citizens but want them to starve because it helps them create their false narrative, says the report.
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