‘Israel’s apartheid must end,’ South Africa says at ICJ hearing
Al Jazeera
International Court of Justice to hear from 52 countries on legality of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
South Africa told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague that Israel is responsible for apartheid against the Palestinians and its occupation is “inherently and fundamentally illegal”.
South African representatives opened the second day of hearings at the ICJ on Tuesday and spoke on a request by the United Nations General Assembly for a nonbinding advisory opinion on the legality of Israel’s policies in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“We as South Africans sense, see, hear and feel to our core the inhumane discriminatory policies and practices of the Israeli regime as an even more extreme form of the apartheid that was institutionalised against Black people in my country,” said Vusimuzi Madonsela, South Africa’s ambassador to the Netherlands, where the ICJ is based.
“It is clear that Israel’s illegal occupation is also being administered in breach of the crime of apartheid. … It is indistinguishable from settler colonialism. Israel’s apartheid must end,” Madonsela said.
He added that South Africa had a “special obligation” to call out apartheid wherever it occurs and ensure it is “brought to an immediate end”.
