The American Mondoweiss website recalled that a full year had passed since South Africa filed a historic lawsuit against Israel before the International Court of Justice, accusing it of committing the crime of genocide, and wondered, as the massacre continued in the Gaza Strip, what had been achieved in this case so far.
The site indicated – in a report written by Walter Lukin – that South Africa made it clear that Israel had engaged in genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, in violation of its obligations under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which the two countries signed without reservations, even though their relations with international law were different. .
The immediate celebratory reaction within the global solidarity movement with Palestine was not surprising, as although many realized that the world’s ability to enforce international law was limited, the hope was that the case brought by South Africa, even if symbolic, might have some tangible effects on the Palestinians. In Gaza.
Is there any effect?
But a year later, it appeared that South Africa’s case against Israel did not stop Israel’s attacks on the lives of Palestinians in Gaza in any way, and the latest major development – according to the site – was South Africa’s submission of its comprehensive statement of evidence on October 28, and Israel has until July 18, 2025 to respond to it, which means the issue is moving forward but without the slightest attention, as the genocide in Gaza continues.
He continued that Israel continued the actions attributed to it unabated, with moral and material support from the major world powers, especially the United States, which raises the question about the benefit of this issue for the global solidarity movement with Palestine, as long as its impact on the Palestinians in Gaza is very minimal, and its horrors continue. Before the eyes of the world.
A year later, the South African case against Israel, although it did not result in any change in the situation on the ground in Gaza, appears to have left a mixed legacy and represented a real, if limited, victory for a long-term project in which the Palestinians and their allies appealed to global civil society and international law to intervene to give legitimacy. On the Palestinian issue and drawing attention to the Nakba to which the Palestinian people are constantly exposed.
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Since the emergence of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in 2005, activists around the world have achieved tremendous success in their struggle for freedom for Palestine, according to the site.
In this sense, and in the midst of the wreckage of the past year, the site makes clear that South Africa’s case against Israel must constitute a real victory given the international and institutional legitimacy that the movements can continue to build on in the future.
The South African case against Israel included the charge of practicing apartheid, and by including this argument in its case, South Africa highlighted the similarities between Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians and South Africa’s policies under apartheid towards the black majority, as well as saying that Israel is guilty of the crime of apartheid. Racism already exists.
