Addressing a joint sitting of Parliament’s international relations and justice committees on Wednesday, International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola briefed lawmakers on South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and on preparations to host the G20. He opened by condemning the 7 October 2023 attacks against civilians and calling for the return of hostages, before setting out why Pretoria approached the ICJ.

Lamola said South Africa filed its application on 29 December 2023 under Article 9 of the Genocide Convention, arguing that Israel’s conduct in Gaza had become, in his words, increasingly genocidal. He told members the application sought provisional measures due to urgency, and that the case would continue until the court issues a finding. According to Lamola, South Africa acted in line with its international law obligations and constitutional values.

To motivate the filing, he cited what he described as genocidal statements by influential Israeli figures and referenced accounts of strikes affecting critical civilian infrastructure. He posed a series of rhetorical questions about civilian deaths, press freedom and healthcare workers, and asserted that preventing genocide is a shared duty. He added that South Africa’s stance aligns with what he called the global majority supporting a rules-based system.

Lamola pointed to material he said supports South Africa’s view. He referenced the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health’s description of Gaza’s health system and said reports by Israeli groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel align with that assessment. He added that South Africa has joined The Hague Group and, together with Colombia, recently co-chaired a meeting in Bogotá with 30 countries to press for an immediate ceasefire and a return to negotiations.

He restated government support for a two-state outcome and listed immediate steps South Africa wants to see. These include a ceasefire and credible peace process, the release of hostages by Hamas and political prisoners by Israel, a halt to settlement expansion, the resumption of humanitarian relief and eventual reconstruction, as well as the removal of the separation wall he described as “cutting across the Occupied Palestinian Territory”. He closed by expressing condolences to victims of terrorist attacks in Jerusalem.

Lamola reminded MPs that South Africa’s counsel, Vaughan Lowe KC, told the ICJ the following: “We have heard expressions of outrage that anyone could accuse Israel of acting in this way. We have heard sober assurances that Israel was doing and would do everything in its power to avoid civilian deaths as it exercised its claimed right of self-defence. We have heard boasts that Israel’s army is the most moral army in history. We have heard flat denials that there is famine in Gaza. For months people, particularly in the West, have appeared unwilling to accept that the accusations are true. How could people who look like us and sound like us possibly engage in anything like genocide?”

Lamola went on to tell Parliament that South Africa’s Ambassador to The Hague, Vusi Madonsela, had answered that question to the court by saying, “[this] stems from a form of amnesia and denial by former colonial powers in relation to the crimes associated with colonial violence perpetrated against indigenous peoples. This includes the denial of genocide. This denial is clearly at play in Palestine.”

Lamola then told Parliament that, “This denial of the genocide and the atrocities by Israel and the tacit condonation of these acts have led to the questioning: do some believe that Palestinian lives matter less than other lives…By extension it begs the question whether the ideologies of superiority that justified colonial conquests, occupations and genocides in Africa and other parts of the world still determine which people are deserving of protection by international human rights law and the international legal framework.”

Given the tense state of trade negotiations between Pretoria and Washington, Lamola’s comments are likely to raise eyebrows in America and risk scuppering what recent progress has been made in those negotiations.