South Africa’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said that the ruling ANC party did not get money from Iran to take Israel to court.
During a meeting with reporters on Wednesday, the minister said that Israel and its allies are making accusations in response to being accused themselves. This is similar to what President Cyril Ramaphosa said earlier, that his country might face consequences for taking legal action against Israel.
Last week, the ICJ made a decision in the case, stating that Israel has to do everything it can to stop genocidal actions in Gaza.
The minister said she complained to the International Criminal Court about how slow they were in doing something about South Africa’s request to take action against Israel. This included the delay in issuing an arrest warrant for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ms Pandor also said that all countries must stop giving money and help to Israel’s military in Gaza because it could be supporting genocide.
The minister recommended that South Africa ask other countries from the southern part of the world to help Palestinians with aid, because they have had less help lately.
Tag: ICJ
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South Africa refutes allegations Iran financed Israel’s ICJ case
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South Africa hails ICJ decision as “decisive victory”
South Africa is happy with the decision made by the International Court of Justice about its case against Israel. They think it is a big win.
The highest court at the United Nations told Israel to quickly do some things to help in Gaza, but didn’t ask for a ceasefire.
Israel must do everything it can to stop genocide in the area, urgently allow more needed aid to enter the territory, and to prevent and punish anyone who encourages genocide in the conflict.
South Africa said Israel is killing many Palestinians.
Israel strongly denies the accusation and is likely to ignore the judges’ orders because the judges cannot force them to follow their decision.
It might be many years before the ICJ makes a final decision about the claim of genocide. -
Gaza war: International Court of Justice to rule on Israel’s request to halt military action
The UN’s highest court will decide if they should tell Israel to stop their actions in Gaza right away.
On Friday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will have a meeting about a case. South Africa is saying that Israel is doing very bad things, like killing many people from a particular group.
Both countries spoke when the case started two weeks ago. Israel strongly said no to the accusation.
The court’s decision against Israel is not able to be enforced, but it would still be very important in politics.
Over 25,000 Palestinians, mainly women and children, have been killed and many more hurt, according to the health ministry in Gaza. The violence started when the group Hamas attacked Israel.
The Hamas attack on October 7th killed around 1,300 people, mostly innocent people. The attackers also kidnapped about 250 people and took them back to Gaza.
South Africa is asking the court to stop Israel’s military actions towards Palestinians while they investigate claims of genocide. The decision on this is not going to happen for a long time, maybe even for years.
Israel was very upset when South Africa said they were committing genocide. They said South Africa was not telling the truth. It said it could protect itself and was only aiming at Hamas fighters, not people in Palestine.
It wanted the judges to reject South Africa’s request because it claimed the accusations of genocide were not true.
On Friday, 17 judges need to answer two questions before making a decision.
First, we need to see if South Africa’s claim against Israel fits the UN‘s rules for the 1948 Genocide Convention. The agreement, which Israel and South Africa have agreed to, explains what actions can be considered as genocide. At the beginning of the case, it is not very difficult to prove.
Furthermore, the judges can consider requests from other places besides South Africa. The panel should tell Israel to follow international law and make sure that it doesn’t stop food, water, or medicine from being delivered to people.
The ICJ can only give advice and opinions, but it doesn’t have the power to make decisions. Although its decisions are considered to have legal force, they cannot be enforced by the court. If Israel loses in court on Friday, they will probably just ignore the decision.
It would make Israel feel more pressure to stop fighting and make its allies work harder to help find a peaceful solution and get aid to the people who need it.