The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has revealed that its application to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has been scheduled for a hearing next week Thursday, January 11.
DIRCO said this is due to its pressure and application to the ICJ where it applied and filed documents to trigger a genocide convention against Israel.
This past week, the government of South Africa said it had filed an application against Israel before the ICJ, the judicial organ of the UN in a bid to force the court to haul Israel before it for crimes against humanity court over the ongoing war in Palestine.
On Tuesday, spokesperson for DIRCO, Clayton Monyela, said Israel has been summoned to appear and be part of the hearing adding that the country’s legal team will be at The Hague on January 11.
The country’s successful application has also been endorsed by Malaysia which has called for an enduring“ solution” to the events in Palestine.
DIRCO said SA was looking forward to tabling its documents in a formal hearing before the court and to hear what it says.
According to a live media briefing circulated on social media, the state of #Israel has also confirmed that it will appear before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its effort to counteract South Africa’s (SA) application before the ICJ.
SA filed an application before the ICJ on December 29, to obtain an order directing #Israel to “refrain from acts that may constitute genocide or related crimes under the Convention”.
SA had in its application requested the Court to “declare on an urgent basis that Israel is in breach of its obligations in terms of the Genocide Convention, should immediately cease all acts and measures in breach of those obligations and take a number of related actions”.
In a live briefing, Israeli Government spokesperson, Eylon Levy, said the state of Israel “emphatically condemns South Africa’s decision to play advocate for the devil.”
“On October 7, Hamas perpetrated an act of genocide on Israeli soil. Death squads executed a campaign of systematic extermination with a clear mission to murder as many Israelis as possible and as sadistically as possible. It was an act of genocide perpetrated with Nazi-like cruelty and Nazi-like efficiency in service of a Nazi-like ideology... On October 7 South Africa aligned itself with the Hamas regime when it blamed Israel for violation of a ceasefire and covered up Hamas crimes against humanity. It is now aiding and abetting this machinery of genocide,” Levi said.
In a statement, Monyela said South Africa was “gravely concerned with the plight of civilians caught in the present Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip due to the indiscriminate use of force and forcible removal of inhabitants”.
It said that as a State Party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, South Africa is under a treaty obligation to prevent genocide from occurring.
“Therefore, at a special meeting held on 8 December 2023, the Cabinet directed that the International Court of Justice in The Hague be approached to obtain an order directing Israel, which is also a State Party, to refrain from any acts that may constitute genocide or related crimes under the Convention,” Monyela said.
In its application to the ICJ, the SA government characterised the situation in Gaza as being “genocidal in character”.
On Sunday, the EFF said it backed the country’s stance on the matter.
“The EFF stands in full support and solidarity with the decision taken by the SA government to file an application before the International Court of Justice against apartheid Israel.
The Star