Lawmakers of the US have taken a negative position towards South Africa since the genocide trial it initiated against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the latter’s top diplomat said on Sunday.
“In terms of responses, unfortunately, there are some legislators in the United States of America that have taken a very negative position against my country,” South Africa’s International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor told Anadolu on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Türkiye.
The US being the world’s largest economy, Pandor said its position is posing a danger to investment and employment in South Africa.
“So, we have to continue to lobby the American people to say, ‘to act against South Africa when they were pursuing a very moral and correct issue in the global space, would be entirely wrong,'” Pandor further said.
In late 2023 South Africa filed a case at the ICJ, accusing Israel of failing to uphold its commitments under the 1948 Genocide Convention.
The UN court, in its interim ruling on Jan. 26, ruled that South Africa’s claims are plausible. It ordered provisional measures for Israel’s government to prevent genocidal acts and allow humanitarian flow into the Gaza Strip, where it has killed more than 30,000 people since the Oct. 7 incursion by Palestinian group Hamas. The initial Hamas attacks killed 1,200 people.
The foreign minister said South Africa is a sovereign nation, and has a right “to take up our case,” and even though many countries don’t agree with its support for Palestine, “this is something we’ve always had, and we will not turn out back on the Palestinian people.”
Asked if Israel implemented the ICJ’s provisional measures, Pandor said: “No, they haven’t applied. We all know. In fact, [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has rejected it. But this is not surprising. We had the same with apartheid. When there were international rulings by the UN bodies, the apartheid state would say no. So, you’re seeing very similar conduct and approach between the apartheid state and the Israeli government.”
Apartheid was an institutionalized system of racial segregation in parts of South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s.