The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) 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 starting on Thursday morning.
“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 reads. “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. It would be like accusing the Allies in the Second World War of perpetrating genocide against the Nazis.”
CAM also notes 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 continues. “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.”
CAM CEO Sacha Roytman Dratwa explains 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,” Roytman Dratwa 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.”
