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The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) has attacked the decision by South Africa to take the State of Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on the charge of genocide, with proceedings on a potential interim decision starting on Thursday.
“In an attempt to score domestic political points and ingratiate itself with some of the vilest and repressive regimes on earth, South Africa has taken Israel to the ICJ,” the CAM statement read. “Unfortunately, South Africa has a deeply problematic history of utilizing international institutions for narrow political purposes to attack the Jewish people, most notably when the 2001 World Conference against Racism (WCAR), also known as Durban I, was appropriated by South Africa and the Islamic Republic of Iran, among others, to malign the Jewish state and Jewish delegates in attendance, while ignoring and abrogating its responsibility to the many real victims of racism and oppression around the world.”
“There is zero legitimacy in accusing a nation fighting genocide of perpetrating the same crime,” CAM added. “It would be like accusing the Allies in the Second World War of perpetrating genocide against the Nazis.”
CAM also noted that South Africa has a very problematic history standing against actual perpetrators of genocide.
“South Africa is extremely and deviously selective in its accusations of genocide, ignoring the mass murder of Yazidis, the hundreds of thousands of Syrians butchered by their own regime, and countless attempted genocides in Africa,” the statement continued. “In fact, South Africa has displayed a shocking and callous attitude toward the perpetrators of actual genocides in the past, notably when it refused to heed an International Criminal Court (ICC) order in 2015 to arrest former President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir, betraying the memory of hundreds of thousands killed during the Darfur conflict.”
“It is thus clear that South Africa has no interest in preventing genocide, and merely aims to propagate a ‘blood libel’ against the national and indigenous homeland of the Jewish people, while lending implicit support for Hamas’ exterminationist intentions,” it further pointed out.
CAM CEO Sacha Roytman explained the reason for the release of the statement.
“South Africa are trying to defame and delegitimize the one Jewish state, and needs to be called out for their hate, antisemitism and hypocrisy,” he said. “This manipulation and appropriation of the international legal system to score local domestic points and to lend legal cover and assistance to the genocidal Hamas death squads should be condemned by all decent people and nations around the world.”
The Combat Antisemitism Movement is a global coalition engaging more than 830 partner organizations and four million people from a diverse array of religious, political, and cultural backgrounds in the common mission of fighting the world’s oldest hatred. CAM acts collaboratively to build a better future, free of bigotry, for Jews and all humanity.
The full statement is below:
The Combat Antisemitism Movement wishes to express our deepest concern and condemnation regarding the proceedings instituted by the Republic of South Africa against the State of Israel on December 29, 2023, at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. The baseless allegations of violations by Israel of its obligations under the Genocide Convention are an affront to decency, morality, and the memory of those murdered in actual genocides, most notably the Holocaust.
In a couple of weeks, the world will mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day to commemorate the systematic mass murder of six million Jews in a clear attempted genocide of the Jewish people by the Nazis.
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), or the Genocide Convention, was formulated on the ashes of the Holocaust to make sure the world meant “Never Again.”
On October 7th, 2023, Hamas, a terrorist organization, proscribed around the world, whose own founding charter seeks the global genocide of the Jewish people, unilaterally attacked civilian communities in the south of Israel with death squads savagely butchering more than 1,200 men, women, and children and kidnapping hundreds more, while maiming and raping countless others.
In the words of Hamas leaders, this was to be only the first of many such massacres they will perpetrate against the Jewish people.
Since that day, Israel has undertaken a defensive military response to ensure that this can not be allowed to happen.
The greatest lesson that the Jewish people learned from the Holocaust is when someone says that they wish to destroy you, they mean it and all reasonable measures must be taken to thwart their intentions. This is Israel’s legal, ethical, and mandatory response to the threat posed by Hamas and other terrorist organizations, who are now attacking Israel in a completely unprovoked manner on seven fronts.
In an attempt to score domestic political points and ingratiate itself with some of the vilest and repressive regimes on earth, South Africa has taken Israel to the ICJ. Unfortunately, South Africa has a deeply problematic history of utilizing international institutions for narrow political purposes to attack the Jewish people, most notably when the 2001 World Conference against Racism (WCAR), also known as Durban I, was appropriated by South Africa and the Islamic Republic of Iran, among others, to malign the Jewish state and Jewish delegates in attendance, while ignoring and abrogating its responsibility to the many real victims of racism and oppression around the world.
By taking Israel to the ICJ, South Africa is not just trying to defame Israel, it will belittle and downgrade an important international institution, proving that the ICJ has just become merely another global weapon to settle scores on the world stage.
There is zero legitimacy in accusing a nation fighting genocide of perpetrating the same crime. It would be like accusing the Allies in the Second World War of perpetrating genocide against the Nazis.
Furthermore, South Africa is extremely and deviously selective in its accusations of genocide, ignoring the mass murder of Yazidis, the hundreds of thousands of Syrians butchered by their own regime, and countless attempted genocides in Africa.
In fact, South Africa has displayed a shocking and callous attitude toward the perpetrators of actual genocides in the past, notably when it refused to heed an International Criminal Court (ICC) order in 2015 to arrest former President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir, betraying the memory of hundreds of thousands killed during the Darfur conflict.
It is thus clear that South Africa has no interest in preventing genocide, and merely aims to propagate a “blood libel” against the national and indigenous homeland of the Jewish people, while lending implicit support for Hamas’ exterminationist intentions.
Any nation supporting Hamas and undermining Israel’s defensive measures to prevent another genocide of the Jewish people has blood on its hands, only further underscoring Israel’s duty to ensure “Never Again.”
