One of the important developments in the legal struggle to stop apartheid Israel’s genocide in Gaza is South Africa’s latest emergency application to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Last week, South Africa launched another fresh attempt to the ICJ to immediately stop apartheid Israel’s military actions in Rafah, southern Gaza, where more than one million Palestinians have taken refuge due to apartheid Israel’s seven-month illegal onslaught and incursion on the besieged enclave.
Apartheid Israel’s regime and military rule disrupts every aspect of daily life in occupied Palestine through a complex network of repressive and military laws. Sadly, Palestinians’ entire lives, including their right to basic services like water, electricity, education and health care, are harshly held captive by apartheid Israel.
Since 1948, apartheid Israel brutally dehumanises Palestinian lives through an evil system of occupation, dispossession and displacement, settler colonialism, ruthless policies of land and home confiscations, the maintenance of a strict apartheid-style system and the systematic human rights violations against Palestinians.
South Africa’s historic and landmark legal proceedings are already worrying the apartheid Israeli regime, which is seeking help from Western allies to oppose the charges.
To this end, I encourage all conscientious individuals to support South Africa’s case at the ICJ and challenge injustices and to keep in check the centres of power and the misuse of authority, wherever it is being expressed.
MOHAMED SAEED
Pietermaritzburg