South Africa: “Israel” violates decisions of International Court of Justice
ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 17 (YPA) – South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, said that what is happening in the Palestinian Gaza Strip and West Bank, and recently in Rafah, confirms “the allegations we made” to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that genocide is occurring in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In press statements during a meeting of the Executive Council of African Union Foreign Ministers in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Thursday, Pandor considered that Israel is violating the decisions of the ICJ by continuing its attacks in Gaza.
The minister also stressed that what is truly worrying is that the world allowed Israel to ignore these resolutions and no one took any measures, such as deploying a peacekeeping force “to protect innocent civilians.”
Pandor also condemned Israeli crimes against journalists, saying, “If more than 170 journalists were killed in a conflict in Africa, I imagine that the whole world and the media would talk about that, but it is considered acceptable when Israel does that.”
Last Tuesday, South Africa submitted an urgent request to the ICJ to use its full powers to stop the military operation that Israel plans to launch in the city of Rafah, south of the besieged Palestinian Strip.
So far, the Israeli aggression on Gaza has left 28,663 Palestinians dead and 68,395 injured, most of them children and women, in addition to thousands of people missing under the rubble, according to the Palestinian authorities. It also caused massive destruction and an unprecedented catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with scarce supplies of food, water, and medicine and the displacement of about two million Palestinians, that is, more than 85% of the population of the Strip, according to the United Nations.
For the first time since its establishment in 1948, Israel is being held accountable before international justice, the highest UN judicial body, on charges of committing genocide crimes against the Palestinians.
YPA