Johannesburg, South Africa – The South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) strongly condemns the South African government’s reckless vow—reiterated by Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola in this week’s Financial Times—to continue pursuing its malicious case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), despite the clear harm this will cause to South Africa’s own interests.
Importantly, the ICJ’s preliminary ruling did not determine that South Africa’s claim of genocide was plausible. It only stated that Palestinians have a plausible right to be protected from genocide and that South Africa has the right to present its case. The ANC-led government has deliberately misrepresented this ruling as a victory, using it to justify its ongoing legal assault on Israel while ignoring the reality that Hamas are the true perpetrators of genocide—responsible for the October 7 massacre against Israel, in which 1,200 Israelis were murdered, over 250 hostages were taken, and thousands of rockets were fired at civilians.
“While championing this case against Israel, the South African government has also failed to condemn Hamas’s hostage-taking of innocent civilians, nor has it made any effort to assist in securing their release, effectively siding with the captors over their victims,” says Rolene Marks, spokesperson for the SAZF.
Hamas, a designated terrorist organisation by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, and other nations, has openly vowed to repeat October 7 “again and again” until Israel is eliminated. Israel has every right to defend itself against this existential threat, and South Africa’s legal campaign to delegitimise that right is both morally indefensible and strategically disastrous.
“The ANC government has abandoned any pretense of neutrality and has instead placed South Africa on a path of antagonism and hostility against the democratic West, siding with regimes like Iran while falsely accusing Israel—the region’s only democracy—of genocide,” Marks added.
The consequences of this reckless foreign policy are already evident. The United States has begun withdrawing financial support, and with AGOA up for renewal in 2025, South Africa is at serious risk of losing crucial tariff-free access to US markets. This would have a devastating impact on South Africa’s struggling economy, costing thousands of jobs and further exacerbating poverty and unemployment. Should AGOA be revoked, the blame will rest squarely on the ANC government and its self-destructive foreign policy.
“The South African government no longer speaks for all its citizens on foreign policy. We urge other parties in the Government of National Unity to exert their influence and reverse this trajectory of diplomatic and economic self-sabotage. This ICJ case does not serve the interests of ordinary South Africans—it advances the ANC’s anti-Western ideological agenda and aligns South Africa with foreign regimes that do not share our democratic values. South Africa cannot afford an ANC-imposed foreign policy that isolates it from its key economic partners and plunges it deeper into economic crisis,” Marks concluded.
