Thank you South Africa for answering the call of the oppressed and took Israel, kicking and screaming, to the international Court of Justice for its genocide in Gaza.
Thank you South Africa for standing with the Palestinian people and speaking out against the Israeli massacres from the air, sea and by ground troops and the murder of innocent civilians and destruction of homes, squares of houses and the bombing of whole cities, villages and camps.
Thank you South Africa for being utterly honest and laying out the facts in front of international judges about Gaza today being completely destroyed with its people – 1.9 million out of 2.2 million turned into internal refugees sleeping on roads and thin sheet-tents in the wild and cold terrain, hungry, destitute and with no food and clothes. Israel maliciously cut off everything, leaving them to fend for themselves.
This is an intent to genocide, to kill and to murder they demonstrated.
Thank you South Africa for speaking up for the wretched of the earth. Thank you for standing tall among the community of nations speaking at an international fora in front of respected judges and under the guise of the world at a time when many of the western countries like the USA, Britain, France, Germany and Italy preferred to condone vicious israeli bloody firepower and keep their arms folded while thousands of American-made bombs reigned down of people.
Thank you for not looking the other way, recognizing the fact the last three months and more Israel has been fighting unarmed civilians while murdering its professional classes of teachers, workers, doctors, journalists, lecturers , lawyers, judges and many more. This is not Hamas territory as Israel claims.
Thank you South Africa right from the top of its political spectrum to its man-in-the-street, institutions, judiciary, parliament, towns and great cities for speaking up against the genocide and ethnic cleansing of poor Palestinians who have no one to protect them except the almighty God and left to fend for themselves: women, children, old and yes, ordinary men many of whom were killed whilst sleeping in their beds as 2000-pound bombs blew their homes into smithereens.
As you rightly put if this is not intent to genocide then what is?
People have been moving from area to area in search of safe places to stay while being shot at by Israeli snipers if they are lucky and bombed at worst. Many of the displaced have been on the move, once, twice and thrice only to meet their deadly fate.
Thank you for your reputable judges who pointed out to the fact and more.
Gaza is not safe. Every place including schools, hospitals, mosques, churches, not to speak of infrastructure has been destroyed. The Israeli war machines has been merciless with over 23,000 killed in their homes and around 58,000 injured not to speak of the people still lying under the rubble.
This is genocide and thankfully you hammered the fact forward and spoke with honesty, humanity, courage and resilience with morality your utmost intention.
You know only too well what’s it like to live under a vindictive, racist, military regime while espousing a fake and shame democratic system that was there only to protect the privileged whites while trodding on the rest of the country. With all your might you said “by God there is no more room for apartheid even if it’s over our dead bodies.”
As you recognize Israel is trying today to erase the Palestinian people of Gaza, to get rid of them once and for all, through more daily massacres, deportation, subjugation, expulsion and reoccupation. Hopefully, your action at the top UN court has managed to stop that and bring Israel to count.
Whilst the Israelis have sought to defend themselves – a despicable act after their genocide committal – Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been quick to backtrack by saying he never wanted to reoccupy Gaza nor expel the Palestinians. But this is an outright lie because he said recently his extremist government was negotiating with various African countries about the possibility of shipping the Gaza Palestinians there as if he can.
Thank you South Africa for stopping such nonsense. Now the aim is to stop the war as an immediate step and give the Palestinians of Gaza a breather to pick themselves and stop the thudding bombs. Whole lists of families have been wiped off the civil register but with the help of countries like South Africa the Palestinians might start hoping again.
Thank you South Africa for this damning report against a state that has become an international pariah in front of world nation states despite its strong friends and allies.
Dr Marwan Asmar is a journalist from Amman, Jordan
