South African Hypocrisy in Accusations of Genocide Against Israel

The extreme leftist government of South Africa opened hearings on Thursday at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), popularly known as the World Court, with accusations: “Israel has transgressed Article Two of the [Genocide] Convention, committing acts that fall within the definition of genocide.”

The 1948 Genocide Convention — passed in the aftermath of the Second World War, during which time an estimated 5-6 million Jews died in the National Socialist (Nazi) German government effort to exterminate all the Jews in Europe — defined genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

In recent years, the term “genocide” has been used to describe efforts to erase the separate identity of a group, as well as actual extermination, as the Nazis tried to do with the gas chambers. South Africa’s case against Israel is based on actions taken by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and statements made by Israeli government officials in the aftermath of the attack of October 7 of last year, in which over a thousand Israeli civilians were murdered by the terrorist organization, Hamas, from its base in Gaza. It was the deadliest day in the 75-year history of the modern nation of Israel.

South Africa’s case was highlighted by a video purporting to show IDF soldiers justifying the killing of women and children by dancing and singing, “It’s a blessing to kill the descendants of Amalek.” (The Amalekites were a people destroyed by ancient Israel, as related in the Bible). South African High Court advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi also cited what he claimed was “genocidal rhetoric” by members of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament), who allegedly called for the destruction of Gaza and its population by saying “there are no uninvolved, there are no innocents in Gaza.”

This was, of course, just after Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist organization, had murdered 1,200 Israeli citizens — mostly women and children — and taken over 200 hostages in the surprise attack on October 7.

South Africa is asking that the United Nations order an emergency suspension of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. “South Africa contends that Israel has transgressed Article Two of the [Genocide] Convention.… The actions show a systematic pattern of conduct from which genocide can be inferred,” the ICJ was told by Adila Hassim, another advocate from South Africa’s high court.

Israel, of course, has denied the accusations of genocide, and noted that it was they who were attacked on October 7. Professor Vaughan Lowe, who is offering external counsel for the case against Israel, was asked why South Africa had not lodged a similar complaint against Hamas. Lowe responded, “Hamas is not a state and cannot be a party to the [genocide] convention, and cannot be a party to these proceedings.” He neglected to note, however, that Hamas won an election years ago to be the ruling body of Gaza, making his argument that Hamas could not be cited hypocritical.

Actually, what is even more hypocritical is that the South African government could very well be cited for carrying out a genocide against its own white minority population since the African National Congress (ANC) gained power in the 1990s. While its first president, Nelson Mandela, made some show of reconciliation with the white minority (such as cheering its white rugby team), the ANC has become increasingly hostile to the whites of the country.

Several examples could be cited, but some more recent oppressive laws passed targeting the white minority of the country include one in which South African farms deemed “too white” will no longer be able to obtain export permits to ship their goods to the United Kingdom or the nations of the European Union.

Another law, passed last year and signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, sets out so-called equity targets, supposedly to achieve racial equality in the business sector — a law that will lead to the dismissal of whites from certain employment. The main opposition to the ANC, the Democratic Alliance (DA), also with a black majority, criticized the new law, arguing that its “race quotas” for companies would simply harm the economy. Party members marched to parliament in Cape Town to protest the law.

The DA argues that the law “will cause at least 220,000 white people, 85,000 colored people, and 50,000 Indians to lose their jobs” within the next few years in Gauteng, the industrial center of the nation.

If genocide can be defined as the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” then South Africa’s increasingly hostile actions against its white minority — which have led thousands of that white minority to leave the country in the past several years — should cause the country’s government to look in the mirror.

This does not, of course, mean that Israel’s government has done nothing wrong in the present war against Hamas. But Israel knows that the rhetoric and actions of groups like Hamas are designed to exterminate the Jews of the Middle East as a separately identified people. In 1948, as soon as the United Nations partition vote was taken, Azzam Pasha, then secretary-general of the Arab League, went on the radio and declared the Arab world would exterminate the Jews. Considering that the threat had come only a little more than three years following the revelation of the Holocaust, the Jews have to take such rhetoric seriously. They also consider slogans such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” to be a not-too-veiled threat against the Jews of the region.

In its first seven years of existence, over 1,300 Israelis were murdered in Arab raids. If Israel’s government ceased to exist, and its Jewish citizens were then subjected to the governance of groups like Hamas, it is doubtful that many Jews would continue to exist in the Middle East. In short, they would be victims of genocide.

One doubts whether the Marxist government of South Africa would bring any case to the UN over that — or over their own genocidal policies.