Supporters of Hamas demonstrating outside the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. Photo: Reuters/Jehad Shelbak

South Africa’s Jewish community on Thursday accused the ruling African National Congress (ANC) of “double-speak and double-standards” on the opening day of the government’s case at the International Court of Justice charging Israel with committing genocide in Gaza.

In a statement shared with The Algemeiner, South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) president Prof. Karen Milner observed that only a week after the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel — in which more than 1,200 people were murdered and over 200 kidnapped alongside multiple reports of rape, mutilation, and other atrocities — the South African government had already decided that Israel was guilty of “genocide.” It noted as well that during the same week, President Cyril Ramaphosa “failed to condemn Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel. To absolve Hamas of any complicity in the tragic loss of lives in Israel and in Gaza shows a thorough lack of understanding of the conflict.”

The statement highlighted that despite its legal campaign targeting Israel, the South African government had hosted international leaders facing charges of crimes against humanity, including former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Mohamed Dagalo, the commander of the RSF militia in Sudan that has carried out numerous atrocities against non-Arab minorities in the Darfur region.

“South Africa’s double-speak and double-standards is also evident with dogged determination to remain neutral and ‘talk to both sides’ in the Russian-Ukraine war,” Milner’s statement continued. “Yet, with Israel it has taken constant punitive action, including refusing to offer condolences to Israel after the Oct. 7 massacre, closing the SA Embassy, issuing a demarche to the Israeli ambassador. and now taking Israel to the ICJ.”

In its evidence submitted to the ICJ in The Hague, South Africa invoked the 1948 Genocide Convention, claiming that Israel’s military response to the Hamas pogrom was “intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial, and ethnical group.”

That point was emphasized in speeches to the court on Thursday by prosecuting lawyers. “The intent to destroy Gaza has been nurtured at the highest level of state,” Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, a lawyer for the High Court of South Africa, declared, while his colleague Adila Hassim said that “every day there is mounting, irreparable loss of life, property, dignity, and humanity for the Palestinian people.”

Israel will formally deliver its response to the charges on Friday. However, several Israeli politicians weighed in on Thursday with strong condemnation of the proceedings.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett described the ICJ case as “the Dreyfus Affair of the 21st century” — a reference to the late 19th century trial of French Army Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, on false charges of espionage that triggered a wave of antisemitic violence across France. Separately, Economy Minister Nir Barkat asserted that “instead of starting proceedings against Hamas, the hypocritical court in The Hague charges Israel with false allegations, fabrications, and antisemitic blood libel plots.” Opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a post on social media that it was “not Israel that is on trial today, but the integrity of the international community.”

Said Lapid: “If a country that protects itself from a brutal murderous terrorist attack can find itself in court for genocide, then the genocide convention has become a reward for terrorism and antisemitism.”

Within South Africa, most opposition parties lined up behind the government in supporting the ICJ case.

“We welcome the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) hearing later this week for provisional measures relating to Israel’s obligations under the Genocide Convention,” Roger Jardine — the founder of Change Starts Now, a new party launched only last month — said in a statement.

The Democratic Alliance (DA), which has often been a thorn in the side of the ANC, offered only muted criticism, arguing that it was “a great pity that the South African government has consistently ignored gross human rights violations on our own doorstep,” Emma Powell, a spokesperson for the party, told local media outlets, before clarifying that “the DA will await the ICJ’s findings.”

More forthright opposition was expressed by the far right Patriotic Alliance, which dismissed the ICJ proceedings as “a joke.” However, party spokesperson Steve Motale later clarified that “we have never taken a side, except to push for a genuine two-state solution, which would bring the violence to an end. We have also been clear from the start that we condemn Hamas, who themselves preach and pursue policies and actions of clearly stated and performed genocide … We support a free Palestine too.”

Rev. Kenneth Meshoe — the leader of the pro-Israel African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) — bemoaned that “the South African government could have played a far more constructive role in influencing Hamas to release hostages after the deadly attack on Oct. 7, and even to surrender, to avoid the loss of civilian lives, and to seek to bring about a lasting peace in the Middle East.” He also expressed skepticism that South African government lawyers would succeed in proving that Israel has demonstrated “the necessary genocidal intent against the Palestinian people as required by the Genocide Convention.”