Israeli Policies on Palestine Mean Apartheid: South Africa

On Tuesday, South Africa asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to examine "the institutionalized regime of discriminatory laws, policies, and practices applied by Israel" in the occupied territories of Palestine, and urged it to declare that the Israeli state subjects Palestinians to "an apartheid regime."

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South Africa's ambassador to The Hague, Vusimuzi Madonsela, requested the judges to "examine the institutionalized regime of discriminatory laws, policies, and practices applied by Israel according to the definition of the crime of apartheid" and define as such the regime to which the Israeli government subjects Palestinians.

"Israel discriminates and fragments all Palestinian peoples to ensure the maintenance of Israeli Jewish domination," warned Madonsela, who cautioned that "Israeli apartheid must end" and "the Palestinian people must be allowed to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination."

He also emphasized that Palestinians in the West Bank "remain contained by a segregated wall" and are victims of discriminatory policies that include "Israeli violent incursions into Palestinian villages, towns, cities, and refugee camps," "illegal arbitrary arrests" of children and adults, which are "indefinitely renewable without trial, euphemistically known as administrative detentions."

"Separately, Palestinians in Gaza have lived in a sealed, fragmented, and segregated enclave from the West Bank, and subjected by Israel to repression, sustained closure, and siege," Madonsela lamented.

"On each of the last 136 days, the world is witnessing an unprecedented assault in Gaza, in speed and severity, violating the most basic precepts of the right to life and survival of a population," he added.

"The international community's unwillingness to hold Israel accountable for its policies and practices, and its failure to ensure the immediate, unconditional, and total withdrawal of Israeli troops, and an immediate end to Israeli occupation and apartheid in Palestine, including Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, encourages Israel to reach a new critical point, to commit genocide, the crime of crimes," Madonsela denounced.

This week, at the request of the United Nations General Assembly, the ICJ is examining "the legal consequences arising from Israel's policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem."

The Court will issue a non-binding legal opinion, in response to a request prior to the Israeli war in Gaza, which has already killed about 28,000 civilians and has left the Strip devastated, with 1.9 million displaced in a territory inhabited by 2.3 million people.

In a separate case on the situation in Gaza, initiated precisely by South Africa at the end of December, the ICJ issued interim measures demanding "immediate and effective" steps from Israel to prevent the commission of genocide in the Strip.

"The Palestinian cause resonates strongly with the people of South Africa. The Palestinian struggle invokes painful memories of our own fight against apartheid, segregation, and oppression," South Africa's ambassador recalled today.