South Africa’s genocide case against Israel is rank hypocrisy

South Africa made history when it took Israel to the International Court of Justice — the United Nations’ highest court — and accused it of waging genocide against Palestinians while asking the court to order an immediate cease-fire.

It might turn out to be the worst decision the country has ever made.

Once, South Africa, especially the post-apartheid beacon fashioned by onetime leader Nelson Mandela, would have had the obligation to call out oppression and champion the vulnerable, but it hasn’t lived up to Mandela’s expectations for a long time.

Mandela saw human rights as the guiding light for South Africa’s foreign policy when he became president 30 years ago. But the South African government’s actions over the last 10 years have belied this; human rights have become a convenient beard, not for any national interest but rather for one based on narrow sectarian interests.

Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks, in which the group massacred innocent civilians and violated and mutilated women, were an outrage. The organization’s founding charter is an unequivocal injunction for the destruction of Israel and the eradication of Jews. It is a clarion call for genocide.

The South African government dragged its heels to condemn the Oct. 7 crime against human rights but responded with alacrity and positively to Hamas, and its funder Iran, a sovereign state with an avowed intent to end the existence of Israel.

Now, South Africa has taken Israel to the U.N. for Israel’s response to the attack, ignoring the catalytic role the Oct. 7 attacks played.

No one can say that Israel should not be judged. But this is South Africa’s fatal flaw. If Israel is to be judged, so, too, must Hamas.

South Africa has opened a Pandora’s box by accusing another country. There will be many who will be astounded that a country would seek to use a global instrument such as the International Court of Justice, when the same court ruled against it only years ago.

The world will not forget South Africa for its failure in 2015 to execute an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, another tribunal, against then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. The South African government’s response was to threaten to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, despite the Mandela administration being one of the original signatories to the Rome Statute that created it.

When the U.N. General Assembly gathered to condemn Russia’s aggression, South Africa abstained from the motion. It would do so twice more. To date, South Africa has refused to condemn Russia for its attack on Ukraine. South Africa has proved to be one of Russia’s most strident allies, as it is increasingly proving to be for Iran and its proxy Hamas.

It is rank hypocrisy: South Africa is quick to call out injustice in some parts of the world but not in others. It is blinded to its own failings. More than 23,000 people have died in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to health officials. In comparison, 27,494 South Africans died by homicide from 2022 to February 2023.

I am a proud South African. I have also been a member, a supporter and a fundraiser for the African National Congress for more than three decades, but I’m also a Jew. I believe that the ANC has much to be proud of in terms of what it has achieved for South Africa as a whole. I believe, too, in the power of the ANC and its leadership to be a force for good on the international stage.

However, its actions since Oct. 7 have wounded me in a way I never thought possible.

I feel betrayed. I feel that Jewish South Africans have been rendered second-class citizens in the land of their own birth. The government did nothing to commiserate with the South Africans slain on Oct. 7 and did little to try to repatriate those caught in the conflict thereafter.

Most of all, I am disappointed that the party of Mandela has failed on the world stage to make a difference, instead of just trying to make a statement.

What was once the ANC’s strength — a broad church where all who shared its ideals were once welcome — has become its greatest weakness. The party of today has become hijacked by minority interests at odds with its traditional credo.

I have immense respect for President Cyril Ramaphosa, and sympathy, because as a loyal lifelong member of the party that he leads, he has to reflect its consensus by honoring it, even if this might run contrary to his beliefs.

When Mandela shepherded South Africa’s peaceful transition from an intolerable regime of repression to the promise of the Rainbow Nation, he and other leaders did so with humility, empathy and an unshakable belief in doing what was right — for everyone.

Mandela knew that the only way to solve problems was to encourage all to find solutions together. Sometimes, he had to take a position that was contrary to the party consensus to do so.

My country’s decision to take Israel to court could be the final unmasking of the South African miracle in the eyes of the world, ironically the year we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mandela enabling millions of South Africans to cast their vote for freedom.

What a truly tragic epitaph on his promise we once held so dear.