South Africa says its citizens who are fighting alongside Israeli forces in the besieged Gaza Strip will be arrested once they return home, nearly three months after the African nation filed a lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the regime’s genocidal acts in the Palestinian territory.
South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor made the remark earlier this week, saying the arrest will be made against her country’s nationals who either fight in the Israeli armed forces or alongside them in the war-torn coastal sliver, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
She made the comment at a Palestinian solidarity event attended by officials from South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party.
“I have already issued a statement alerting those who are South African and are fighting” alongside or in the Israeli military that “we are ready. When you come home, we are going to arrest you,” Pandor said, which was greeted with rapturous applause from the audience.
Furthermore, South Africa’s top diplomat encouraged people to protest outside the embassies of what she called the “five primary supporters” of Israel and its military action in the Gaza Strip.
Pandor did not mention the “supporters” by name, but almost certainly was referring to the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany among others.
In late December, South Africa stated before filing a lawsuit against Israel at the ICJ that the occupying regime has failed to uphold its commitments under the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Pretoria argued that Tel Aviv’s actions in Gaza since the onset of the current war have been genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.
In its interim ruling on January 26, the top UN court ruled that South Africa’s claims are plausible, ordering provisional measures. The Hague-based court also said that the Israeli regime must implement steps to prevent genocidal acts and allow humanitarian aid flow into Gaza.
South African has already said that those with dual South African-Israeli citizenship could be stripped of their South African citizenship.
In November, the country’s lawmakers voted in favor of closing down the Israeli embassy in Pretoria and suspending all diplomatic relations until the onslaught stops.
South Africa, which has a significant Jewish population of around 70,000 people, has been an outspoken critic of the Israeli regime’s genocidal war on Palestinians and has led some initiatives to hold Israel accountable for its crimes in Gaza.
Israel began the campaign of death and destruction in Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
Since then, the regime has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured some 73,000 others. The regime has also imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
