Who is Israeli MP Ofer Cassif, why is he backing South Africa at the ICJ?
Al Jazeera
An Israeli politician is taking a bold stance against the genocide he says his country is perpetrating in Gaza.
A firebrand Israeli parliamentarian provoked a political and social media storm earlier this week when he signed a petition supporting South Africa’s case of genocide against Israel, which is to be heard at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
Ofer Cassif, who declared his backing for South Africa on social media, will support the country’s legal bid when it comes before the ICJ on Thursday and Friday this week.
“My constitutional duty is to Israeli society and all its residents,” he wrote on X on January 7. “Not to a government whose members and its coalition are calling for ethnic cleansing and even actual genocide. They are the ones who harm the country and the people, they are the ones who led to South Africa’s appeal to The Hague, not me and my friends.”
The Palestinian death toll from Israel’s near-100-day bombardment of the Gaza Strip has crossed 23,000 people, including nearly 10,000 children.
