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The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) wishes the South African legal team which is fighting for justice for Palestinian people, all the best, as it prepares for what is possibly the most important court case in modern history. NUMSA supports the application made by the South African government to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel on the genocide of Palestinian people. South Africa has described Israel’s actions as genocidal because the goal of Israel is to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group.

NUMSA is of the view that Israel is determined to wipe out the entire population of Palestine. Apartheid Israel is responsible for the daily massacre of thousands of citizens in Gaza. They have bombed homes, clinics, hospitals, churches and even refugee camps. There is no part of Gaza which is safe, everyone is a target. Currently the death toll is over 30 000 people, and it is estimated that at least 10 000 of these are children. 

Since the attacks by Hamas on October 7th, Israel has rained bombs on the Gaza strip, and it has used the actions of Hamas to justify ethnic cleansing. Apart from the daily murder of innocent women and children, Israel is blocking access to clean water, it has interrupted the supply of electricity and communication networks and it has destroyed nearly all the hospitals, whilst simultaneously killing and injuring healthcare workers. At the same time, over 100 journalists have been murdered by the brutal Apartheid state of Israel, as a way to block the truth of its horrendous actions, from reaching the outside world. 

The court application to the ICJ is the latest move by South Africa, to increase pressure against Israel after the South African Parliament voted in favour of closing down the Israeli embassy in Pretoria and suspending all diplomatic relations until a ceasefire was agreed. NUMSA is of the view that the ICJ must not only rule on cease fire, it must also issue a warrant of arrest for that warmonger Benjamin Netanyahu, whose hands are dripping with the blood of innocent women and children. NUMSA is ready to be part of the citizen arrest of that heartless, cold-blooded killer.  

We also demand that President Cyril Ramaphosa must stop moving at a snail’s pace in implementing the majority decision of the South African parliament to close the Israeli embassy and fire its ambassador for good. We must cut all trade ties with the racist, Zionist apartheid Israel regime which is backward and primitive and is in the process of eliminating Palestinians through ethnic cleansing. 

We reject with the contempt it deserves, the desperate attempt by the Israeli, Zionist racist state and the Jewish Board of Deputies to defend Apartheid Israel. We condemn them for supporting the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank. By criticizing South Africa for filing to the ICJ, they are demonstrating that they side with the oppressor. To reject the collective punishment of Palestinians and to denounce Israel for the mass murder of innocent women and children, is not an example of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is prejudice against or hatred of Jews, and as a union, we stand for non-racialism and we reject all forms of backwardness and discrimination.

NUMSA rejects all forms of prejudice, including discrimination against on the basis of race, religion, class and gender. We have also noted the articles, and press statements and protests by progressive Jews all over the world, who have denounced the actions of the blood thirsty Israeli government. We welcome the statement issued by the South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) which supports the government’s decision to take the Israeli government to the ICJ. In their statement issued on the 3rd of January, they say the following,

“Thinking together about these connected apartheids and legal architectures from our vantage point as Jewish South Africans, we express our absolute condemnation of the genocide in Palestine and of the violent vandalization of our Jewish faith as it has been manipulated to support apartheid and settler colonial genocide in Palestine and globally through the conflation of Judaism and Zionism and antisemitism and anti-Zionism. This conflation is ahistorical, inaccurate, racist, and dangerous.”

The SAJFP have also condemned the Israeli government spokesperson, Eylon Levy for describing South Africans actions at the ICJ as an example of a ‘blood libel’. This is what they had to say in response, 

“Blood libel is an anti-Semitic trope in the form of a false accusation levelled against Jewish people for murdering Christians and using their blood in the performance of religious rituals. It is a trope that has provided fuel for the centuries of discrimination, persecution and pogroms experienced by the Jewish people, and it is one which we take deeply seriously. Labelling the application to the ICJ in terms of the Genocide Convention “blood libel” is not only a complete misrepresentation of what blood libel is, it is a further instance of Jewish historical experience being weaponised in service of Israel’s settler colonial project.”

NUMSA will continue to stand with the people of Palestine and we support all their demands. We continue to call on our members to support the cause of the Palestinian people and their struggle for freedom.

Our members will be able to follow the proceedings of the ICJ on their website. The hearings will be held on the Courts website and on UN Web TV on Thursday and Friday the 11th and 12th of January 2024. South Africa will make its input on Thursday and Israel will make its case on Friday. The hearings start at 10:00AM. Links below:

Issued by NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim