Lamola 'confident' SA presented a compelling case at ICJ
Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola believes the South African legal team presented a compelling case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday.
South Africa has presented its case against the state of Israel in the International Court of Justice at the Hague - in which it claims Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.
The country's top lawyers used multimedia data and evidence to demonstrate to the World Court an act of genocide and genocidal intent by the Israeli military against the Palestinian people.
"We believe that we have presented a compelling case, facts, and the law, international law. There is clear jurisprudence about the case and the facts that we have presented," said Lamola.
Lamola also slammed Israel's comment that South Africa is merely playing politics.
"This is the highest organ of the UN. I think it will be an insult to the court to say the court granting us an opportunity to present our compelling case is politics. We have presented a compelling legal argument with facts, and relevant articles of the convention. This is not politics. We are expecting the court to pronounce on the facts and the law," added Lamola.
One of South Africa's top legal minds, Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, used video evidence to demonstrate the alleged genocidal intent of the Israeli government.
Ngcukaitobi said it was clear that soldiers on the ground in Gaza repeated genocidal utterances by the Israel leader.
"Israel’s special genocidal intent is rooted in the belief that the enemy is not just the military wing of Hamas, or even Hamas in general, but is embedded in the fabric of Palestinian life in Gaza," he said.
Israel's immediate response was to accuse South Africa of being a legal arm of the Hamas terrorist organisation.
"The State of Israel is accused of genocide at a time when it is fighting genocide," Netanyahu said in a statement after South Africa lodged an urgent appeal at the International Court of Justice accusing it of breaching the UN Genocide Convention.
"A terrorist organisation carried out the worst crime against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, and now someone comes to defend it in the name of the Holocaust? What brazen gall. The world is upside down."
Israel will respond to South Africa's case on Friday.
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