JOHANNESBURG, (PIC)
South African Foreign Minister Nalidi Bandor said that her country will submit to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday a detailed memorandum that includes additional facts, forensic evidence, and arguments to substantiate its case against Israel’s genocide in Palestine.
Bandor explained that the memo follows demands from her country to the court in The Hague to take new measures under the Genocide Convention, asking Israel to stop its war in the Gaza Strip and to withdraw its army from the Strip and Rafah crossing.
The Minister of International Relations and Cooperation in South Africa, Ronald Lamola, further elaborated that the memo contains more evidence, in forensic detail, to show that what is happening in Gaza is indeed a genocide.
The Presidency of South Africa said last September that it would present a dossier to the ICJ documented by facts and evidence proving that Israel had already committed the crime of genocide in Palestine.
In mid-May, Bandor said what is happening in Palestine is apartheid, stressing that her country seeks to make Israel abide by the Genocide Convention over its behavior against the Palestinians.
The minister reiterated her country’s insistence on moving forward with its case against Israel before the ICJ, because “the massacres carried out by Israeli occupation forces are based on facts as they are committed before the whole world.”
The court had earlier set the end of October as a deadline for South Africa in order to present its opinion on the case; once the dossier is filed, Israel must file a counter-memo by July 28 of next year.
