The government of South Africa has taken Israel to the International Court of Justice, charging the Jewish state with “genocide” in Gaza. The charge is preposterous, and it will be seen to be so as the Israelis continue to lay out their defense. Meanwhile, 86% of South Africans are Christians; only 1.6% are Muslims. The government’s decision to charge Israel at the ICJ with practicing “genocide” is wildly unpopular in the country. And now the Christians have been speaking out, expressing their deep distress over the government’s grotesque attack on Israel. The fury over the government’s coming out so strongly, and unfairly, against the Jewish state, might even lead infuriated Christians to mount a political challenge to the ANC. More on the Christians of South Africa rallying in support of Israel can be found here: “South African Christian leaders oppose ICJ charge: Cannot keep silent,” by Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman, Jerusalem Post, January 10, 2024:
Christians throughout South Africa have risen against the government’s decision to take Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on charges that it is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
“The African National Congress government and their allies’ decision to take Israel to the International Court of Justice has brought us to a place where, like the time of Queen Esther in the Bible, we cannot keep silent,” said Tshego Motaung, head of the Healing of the Nations prayer movement in an article published on the South African Christian website Gateway News. “We cannot keep silent when a government that has failed on its domestic mandate wants to rise as a hero in the global political arena.”…
The first argument made by these Christians is a moral one. Hamas committed unspeakable crimes on October 7, and Israel has a right, and a duty, to defend itself. Hamas wishes to destroy Israel, but Israel has no similar desire to annihilate Gaza. Israel is the victim, Hamas the criminal. The South African government has things backward.
The second argument is one based on the recognition that South Africa stands to benefit economically from good relations with Israel. The Jewish state is a world leader in water management — in desalination, drip irrigation, wastewater recycling, and production of water from the ambient air. It is a world leader, too, in solar energy, and could help South Africa, which gets 50% more exposure to the sun than the United States, increase its use of that renewable source of energy. Finally, Israel could help South Africa develop its own high-tech start-ups, another area where Israel is a world leader.
Third, unnamed “trading partners” of South Africa — presumably meaning the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and the members of the E.U. — are likely to look askance at Pretoria for taking the side of Hamas, a group that is widely recognized as a terrorist organization. This may affect their willingness to continue to trade with South Africa, and to cause them, too, to refrain from closer political ties with a country that defends and endorses murderous terrorists.
They [South African Christians] also condemn the government for failing to condemn Hamas’s actions in Gaza.
This failure by their government to condemn Hamas’ atrocities on October 7, and its use of human shields in Gaza, and its kidnapping and cruel mistreatment of Israeli hostages, including children and the elderly, is to South Africa’s Christians inexplicable and insupportable. It has been more than 100 days since the atrocities committed on October 7, and still not a syllable of sympathy for Israelis has been forthcoming from Pretoria.
“Such actions could be interpreted as direct support to Hamas’s tactics, including using civilians as human shields and diverting aid for military purposes and the building of tunnels, rather than humanitarian relief sent to the Palestinian people, which Hamas intercepted,” the letter continued.
The letter from the Christian groups in South Africa notes that Hamas made a choice years ago: it chose to spend billions of aid dollars on its underground network of tunnels. The letter might have also noted that Hamas’ corruption is colossal, and that just three Hamas leaders — Khaled Meshaal, Mousa Abu Marzouk, and Ismail Haniyeh — have stolen a total of $11 billion from aid money meant for the people of Gaza. But that would be too dangerous a matter to raise, given that the ANC leaders are also, like those of Hamas, exceedingly corrupt, with President Ramaphosa alone now possessing about half a billion dollars.
Walter Sieruk says
This is wrong and absurd for it’s not Israel but Hamas that is guilty of attempting to commit genocide.
Moreover, that horrendous dangerous and deadly Hamas will centrally take any supplies and money given to it for humanitarian aid and deliberately misuse it to fund its murderous jihadists in their Islamic war against the Jewish people and the State of Israel for the cause of Islam.
For that demonic and murderous jihad entity, Hamas has no limits, at all, to its horrendously horrific heinous vile evils that it so maliciously commits.
Furthermore, it needs to be made clear that Hamas is a violent and deadly religious organization. It’s foundation is Islam which has Quran as its ’holy book” that instructs Muslims to engage in the violence and killing of “disbelievers” for the cause of Islam, as seen in Surah 2:191. 4: 89. 5:33. 9:123. For example, Surah 47:4 reads, “Whenever you encounter the disbelievers strike off their heads until you make a great slaughter among them…”
The terrible reality is that using rockets, machine guns and bombs will make a greater “slaughter among them than a sword can.
The jihadists of Hamas are followers of Quran based Islam and not a “warped’ type of Islam.
Walter Sieruk says
That Communist government of South Africa has taken Israel to the International Court of Justice, charging the Jewish state with “genocide” in Gaza is dong wrong, again,
It’s making slanderous and libelous accusations is evil and wrong. Very evil and wrong.
That claim by the enemies of the Jewish State of Israel is a false completely claim.
One genuine newspaper had put it this way “One accusation is that Israel has engaged in genocide against the Palestinians. However, the facts show a vast increase in the Palestinian population, from 156,000 to 2,100,000 in Israel…” [1]
[1] THE EPOCH TIMES January 3-9, 2024, A15
Walter Sieruk says
It’s completely unethical and unscrupulous of the officials of the Red regime South Africa to make false charges against Israel accursing her of trying to commit genocide.
Of course it’s very sad and tragic that so many innocent children died in Gaza because of this current war that Hamas started this with Israel on October 7th when it launched its brutal vicious and murderous and even vile and heinous jihadist attacks on the peaceful Jewish citizens of the State of Israel.
That innocent children died in Gaza because of Israel’s air force was not the intention of the government and military officials of Israel.
Those youngster who had been killed had died because those despicable jihadists of Hamas, because they are so very callous and cruel that they deliberately stationed their jihad strategy command and weapon centers at buildings that have children in and around those places.
Therefore the bloodguilt for the death of those children of Gaza on the wicked hands of the Hamas jihadists.
Walter Sieruk says
It very much needs to be remembered that it was that demonic dangerous and deadly Jihad entity that stated that current war in the Middle East by invading Israel, on October 7,th , and then attempted to commit genocide against the Jewish people and the jihadists of Hamas even went further in heinous evil by kidnapping many Israel’s and raping many Jewish females . Those Hamas jihadist are so cruel and vicious that they even took Jewish infants and burned them to death while they were still alive.
Hamas is, in reality , committing genocide.
In spite of all those facts, some despicable people want to exculpate Hamas from all is wicked jihad terrorism and release its jihadists from the monstrous Islamic evil that they have so vicious committed and are very guilty of.
To add to this m libelous and slanderous of false charges of genocide are made against Israel about it heads of government and the IDF.
Such charges are as absurd as they are also wrong. Those changes are very absurd.
FYI says
African Christians seem to be the light of Christendom.African catholics are desperately trying to keep the Magisterium while francis is intent on destroying it.
It is like sitting on a carpet and somone is pulling the carpet from you.. but you are still sitting on the carpet.
African Christians are being killed by the muslims as we know but that doesn’t qualify as a Genocide to the ICJ .
Nkosi Sikelel’ i Afrika