Former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman called on Saturday for South Africa to be held accountable for the case it filed against his country before the International Court of Justice, on charges of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Lieberman, who heads the “Israel Our Home” party, said in a blog post on his account on the X platform, “The price must be paid for the anti-Semitic farce currently taking place in The Hague, which was started by South Africa.”
The former Israeli Prime Minister called for the severing of diplomatic relations with South Africa and all countries that support the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Lebanese Hezbollah, describing them as terrorism.
He urged Israel to call on Jews living in South Africa to immigrate to Israel and not to wait until acts related to anti-Semitism erupt, which may include persecution of Jews and harm to them, as he put it.
The number of the Jewish community in South Africa is about 77,500 people, which is the largest Jewish community on the African continent, and most of them are concentrated in major cities such as Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
On Thursday and Friday, the International Court of Justice in The Hague held two public hearings as part of the start of consideration of the case brought by South Africa against Israel on charges of committing “genocide crimes” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
On December 29, South Africa filed an 84-page lawsuit, presenting evidence of Israel’s violation of its obligations under the United Nations Charter and its involvement in committing genocide crimes against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has rejected the accusation against it of committing genocide against the Palestinians, and Israel’s defense team claimed, during its argument in a session held by the International Court of Justice yesterday, Friday, that Israel’s war on Gaza was “self-defense.”
In the coming days, the International Court of Justice is scheduled to determine its new steps regarding the case against Israel.
Since last October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza that, as of Saturday, left 23,843 martyrs and 60,317 injured, massive infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to the Gaza Strip authorities and the United Nations.