South Africa tells U.N.'s high court that 'Israel's apartheid must end'

Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Israel's apartheid must end, South Africa told the United Nations' highest court on Tuesday as it blamed the international community's failure to hold the Middle Eastern country accountable for emboldening it to commit genocide against the Palestinian people.

Vusi Madonsela, South Africa's ambassador to the Netherlands, was the first to speak during the second day of a week of hearings at The Hague's International Court of Justice concerning the legal consequences of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory.

He said the Palestinian cause resonates with South Africa and evokes its own struggle against apartheid, segregation and oppression.

"We, as South Africans, sense, see, hear and feel to our core the inhumane and discriminatory policies and practices of the Israel regime as an even more extreme form of the apartheid that was institutionalized against the Black people in our country," he said.

Madonsela quoted a 2010 statement by Archbishop Desmond Tutu that described the Palestinians as living under apartheid but added that in the 14 years since, the situation "has worsened exponentially with the reality of apartheid becoming so obviously explicit as to now been recognized not only by South African and Palestinian victims of apartheid themselves but the broader international community."

He said it was "clear" Israel's illegal occupation breached the crime of apartheid and that it was "indistinguishable" from settler colonialism.

South Africa, he continued, was obliged to call out apartheid wherever it occurs and that "Israel's apartheid must end."

He added that the near-six-decade occupation has been conducted in defiance of international law and U.N. resolutions with little enforcement from the international community.

"The international community's unwillingness to hold Israel accountable for its policies and practices and its failure to ensure the immediate and unconditional total withdrawal of Israeli troops and an immediate end to Israel occupation and apartheid in Palestine, including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem emboldens Israel to cross a further threshold, namely to commit the crime of crime -- genocide," he said.

The hearings, which run until Monday, are being held as a result of a December 2022 resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly in response to a U.N. Human Rights Council-commissioned report published that October that found Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory was illegal under international law.

The 15 judges of the International Court of Justice are tasked with producing a non-binding opinion advisory on the legal consequences of Israel's occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. It will also advise how Israel's policies and practices affect the legal status of the occupation and what this means for other countries and the United Nations.

South Africa was one of 11 countries to speak on Tuesday and a record 52 that are to address the court during the week of hearings, with the state of Palestine having been the first to address the judges on Monday when its foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, called Israel's illegal occupation "colonialism" and "apartheid."

Israel has opted not to participate in protest. On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel does not recognize the legitimacy of the proceedings at the court, which he described in a statement as "an effort designed to infringe on Israel's right to defend itself against existential threats."

"The proceedings in The Hague are part of the Palestinian attempt to dictate the results of the diplomatic settlement without negotiations. We will continue to reject this," he said.