People stand outside the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, Sept. 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw

The news media’s interest in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) cases against Israel is a highly fickle affair.

Following journalists’ hyperfocus on the ICC’s 2024 request warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the plummeting interest in the latest relevant developments is striking. 

Thus, the press corps has demonstrated notable disinterest in this month’s suspension of Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, following a year-and-a-half-long investigation into sexual abuse allegations filed by a female. 

In November 2025, The Guardian reported that the woman had been the target of “a covert operation carried out by private intelligence firms, allegedly on behalf of [a high-level diplomatic unit of] Qatar.” One of the operation’s main objectives, the newspaper said, was to find evidence that could be used to undermine the credibility of her allegations against Khan. 

The supercharged pace of events which proceeded this revelation began with South Africa’s Dec. 29, 2023, appeal to the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide. In record time, with the ICJ case far from reaching conclusion, Khan’s ICC issued the warrants on May 20, 2024.  

Then, in a little noticed May 2026 interview which further raised serious questions about the legitimacy of the ICC warrants, Khan acknowledged that there was no evidence to support the charge of genocide against Israel.  

Similarly, South Africa’s May 2026 request for an 18-month extension from the International Court of Justice to respond to Israel’s latest defense filing in the December 2023 “genocide” case also garnered little interest. 

The Jerusalem Post explained that South Africa was expected to submit an update in the spring or summer of 2026, with additional charges related to 2025, which Israel would likely have to respond to before spring 2027.

But now South Africa will have until November 2027, to respond to Israel’s filing and submit any updates, while Israel will have until May 2029, to respond. In other words, according to the newspaper, there will probably be no further hearings before the end of 2029, if not 2030. 

According to UN Watch, the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel before the International Court of Justice “is falling apart. At first, they claimed the case was urgent. But now the ANC government has secured an 18-month extension to submit its arguments. … Some urgency. Some genocide.” 

Israeli sources cited in The Jerusalem Post suspect that this postponement is not motivated by the need to gather evidence, but rather by South Africa’s political motive to return to the court only once US President Donald Trump’s term is over in the hopes of a more favorable new administration represented in a court where, the outlet said, politics often influences judges’ votes. 

Moreover, it’s important to note the Islamic Republic of Iran’s hand in the ostensibly South African case. As the Middle East Africa Research Institute (MEARI) warned in a 2025 report, there exists “an alignment of the African National Congress (ANC) government with the theocratic regime of Iran.” The African country, the institute explained, has systematically protected Iran at the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency, often voting against sanctions or abstaining. 

The Iranian element is another aspect which media have largely overlooked in its otherwise intense focus on the international cases against Israel. 

A report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy (ISGAP), revealed the scope and deepening ties between South Africa’s ruling political party, the aforementioned ANC, and international terrorist organizations and their state sponsors, including Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran (which also financed, armed, and advised Hamas), and Qatar. 

The report links South Africa’s political and financial alignment with Iran and Qatar — both major sponsors of global terrorism — to its campaign to file a lawsuit against Israel before the ICJ. 

It explained that immediately after South Africa filed its lawsuit, suspicions arose regarding Iranian funding. Frans Cronje, former CEO of the South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR), stated in a radio interview, according to the report, that Iran paid the ANC to litigate against Israel before the ICJ. Cronje reportedly noted in an interview that it was “hard to ignore the coincidence between the ANC’s spectacular financial shift after October 2023 and the government’s interest in Gaza.” 

In November 2024, The Jerusalem Post reported that the ANC “received a sudden inflow of unidentified cash following a series of meetings between Hamas, Iran, and Qatar leaders and ANC ministers.” ANC leaders, the outlet continued, refused to disclose the source of the funds, which covered the party’s total debts, amounting to nearly $30 million. 

Both the money trail and the delay strategy point to Tehran. Will the media take note, preferably sometime before South Africa’s now significantly delayed next filing? 

Marcelo Wio is a Senior Analyst at CAMERA’s Spanish Department, where a version of this article first appeared.