Pretoria – The South African government says it “welcomes” the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) recent arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant, and Mohammed Deif of Hamas.
The ICC on Thursday, (21 November 2024), issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’ October 7 attack.
The health ministry says 44 056 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli Gaza offensive since 7 October 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise attack in Israel that left over 1 100 Israelis dead and hundreds of others abducted.
Most of the dead are women and children. Many others have been maimed in the relentless bombings by Israel, which insists its deadly actions are an exercise of its right to defend itself.
The ICC charges against Netanyahu and Gallant include the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare.
Commenting on the ICC arrest warrants, Chrispin Phiri, spokesperson for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in a terse statement: “These actions mark a significant step towards justice for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Palestine.
“South Africa reaffirms its commitment to international law and urges all state parties to act in accordance with their obligations in the Rome Statute.
“We call on the global community to uphold the rule of law and ensure accountability for human rights violations.”
Earlier this month, on 6 November 2024, Netanyahu fired Gallant as Israel’s defense minister.
Gallant was replaced by Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
Netanyahu denounced the ICC decision on Thursday to issue the arrest warrants, calling the ruling “anti-Semitic.”
“Israel rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions levelled against it by ICC,” his office said.
Meanwhile, the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) said it “wholly condemns the baseless, flawed, and shameful warrants of arrest issued by the ICC” for Netanyahu, and Gallant.
“This is the first time the ICC has targeted leaders of a Western democratic state, creating a dangerous precedent for when other sovereign countries may come under attack by an adversary in the near future and would require taking the necessary military steps to defend themselves,” said Rolene Marks, SAZF spokesperson.
“The warrants remain a mockery of international law and only seek to punish Israeli leaders for taking the necessary steps to defend their country and its citizens from multiple hostile players in the region that have made the destruction of Israel and the eradication of the Jewish people central to their existence.
“The facts are simple; Israel came under attack by the bloodthirsty terrorist group, Hamas, on October 7th 2023, when they not only invaded Israel’s sovereignty by murdering innocent Israeli civilians in their own homes, but also abducted hundreds of Israelis, taking them back into the Gaza Strip.”
Marks said to this day, over 100 of these hostages have still not been returned, giving Israel every right to continue in its military offensive to rescue their fellow citizens.
“The warrants are nothing less than slanderous, outrageous and appalling, as they target the world’s only Jewish state for acting in self-defence against its enemies who wish to inflict a genocide on the Jewish people,” said SAZL.
“It is laughable that the ICC attempts to make a false moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas, by also issuing a warrant for Hamas’ Mohammed Deif (the mastermind behind the October 7th attacks), who is already dead and cannot answer for his heinous crimes.”
