The International Court of Justice (ICJ), which sits in The Hague, is holding hearings this week on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967, with an unprecedented number of 52 countries called to testify.
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Israel’s practices in the Palestinian territories are a form “even more extreme” of the apartheid that South Africa experienced before 1994, declared Pretoria on Tuesday February 20, before the highest court of the UN. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), which sits in The Hague, is holding hearings this week on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967, with an unprecedented number of 52 countries called to testify.
“As South Africans, we feel, see, hear and feel deep within ourselves the inhumane discriminatory policies and practices of the Israeli regime as an even more extreme form of institutionalized apartheid against black people in my country” , said Vusimuzi Madonsela, South Africa’s ambassador to the Netherlands.
“It is clear that the illegal occupation of Israel is also administered in violation of the crime of apartheid (…) it is indistinguishable from colonialism”, he continued. These hearings are separate from a case brought to the ICJ by South Africa, which accuses Israel of committing genocidal acts in Gaza. The court has yet to rule on this point, but on January 26 called on Israel to prevent any possible act of genocide. She did not mention a ceasefire.
