Not only did South Africa lay a charge against Israel for war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC), but it will also petition the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to declare it an apartheid state.

This is according to International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor in response to a parliamentary question.

Economic Freedom Fighters MP Vuyani Pambo asked: "In light of how global solidarity and sanctions played a significant role in undermining the apartheid project in the Republic, what is the government doing practically to show solidarity with the people of Palestine, except the perceived lip service and empty messages?"

Pandor answered that South Africa and Palestine were currently working on formulating practical strategies towards taking up the Palestinian cause to the ICC and ICJ, both in The Hague, the Netherlands, to "declare Israel as an apartheid state".

"South Africa will directly petition the ICJ to give advisory opinion on the legal consequences arising from the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, from its prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967," she added.

Pandor said on a continental level, South Africa was instrumental in lobbying for Israel not to be granted observer status to the African Union.  

"In February 2023, South Africa welcomed the suspension of Israel's observer status at the African Union.

"South Africa objected against the unilateral granting of official observer status by the chairperson of the African Union Commission on 22 July 2021.

"This action came at a time when the Israeli oppression became more brutal, the oppressed people of Palestine were and are subjected to bombardments and continued illegal settlements on their land, further hampering any efforts to the peace process."

Pandor said on a global level, South Africa supported Palestinian efforts to obtain membership of the UN and "the creation of positive, credible, and lasting international mechanisms to address the Palestinian cause based on international law".

She added that Parliament voted on 7 March in favour of a motion to downgrade the South African embassy in Israel to a liaison office.

"Since the recall of South Africa's ambassador to Tel Aviv in 2018, the South African Embassy in Israel has been headed by a charge d'affaires," said Pandor.

On 17 November, South Africa, along with the Comoros, Djibouti, Bolivia, and Bangladesh, jointly referred the situation in Palestine and Israel to the ICC.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement his office had received the referral and confirmed his office was investigating the situation in Palestine.

"This investigation, commenced on 3 March 2021, encompasses conduct that may amount to Rome Statute crimes committed since 13 June 2014 in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

"It is ongoing and extends to the escalation of hostilities and violence since the attacks that took place on 7 October 2023. 

"In accordance with the Rome Statute, my office has jurisdiction over crimes committed on the territory of a state party and with respect to the nationals of state parties," added Khan.

He said his team investigating the situation "is moving with focus in collecting, preserving and analysing information and communications from key stakeholders in relation to relevant incidents" and they have collected a "significant volume of information and evidence".

International human rights watchdogs like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have long advocated that Israel is practising apartheid.

On 16 December 1966, the UN adopted a resolution declaring apartheid a crime against humanity.

The UN's General Assembly adopted the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid in 1973 with 91 votes in favour, four against - South Africa, the UK, US, and Portugal - and 26 abstentions.

The convention, which came into force in 1976, declares "that apartheid is a crime against humanity and that inhuman acts resulting from the policies and practices of apartheid and similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination … are crimes violating the principles of international law".

The Crime of Apartheid

In terms of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, the crime of apartheid applies "to the following inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them":  

(a) Denial to a member or members of a racial group or groups of the right to life and liberty of person. 

(i) By murder of members of a racial group or groups.

(ii) By the infliction upon the members of a racial group or groups of serious bodily or mental harm, by the infringement of their freedom or dignity, or by subjecting them to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

(iii) By arbitrary arrest and illegal imprisonment of the members of a racial group or groups.   

(b) Deliberate imposition on a racial group or groups of living conditions calculated to cause its or their physical destruction in whole or in part.  

(c) Any legislative measures and other measures calculated to prevent a racial group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country and the deliberate creation of conditions preventing the full development of such a group or groups, in particular by denying to members of a racial group or groups basic human rights and freedoms, including the right to work, the right to form recognised trade unions, the right to education, the right to leave and to return to their country, the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of movement and residence, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

d) Any measures including legislative measures, designed to divide the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group or groups, the prohibition of mixed marriages among members of various racial groups, the expropriation of landed property belonging to a racial group or groups or to members thereof.

(e) Exploitation of the labour of the members of a racial group or groups, in particular by submitting them to forced labour.  

(f) Persecution of organisations and persons, by depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms, because they oppose apartheid.

A report published by Amnesty International in 2022 found "that Israel has established and maintained an institutionalised regime of oppression and domination of the Palestinian population for the benefit of Jewish Israelis - a system of apartheid - wherever it has exercised control over Palestinians' lives since 1948".

"Amnesty International concludes that the State of Israel considers and treats Palestinians as an inferior non-Jewish racial group."

Amnesty International found the segregation is conducted in a systematic and highly institutionalised manner through laws, policies and practices, "all of which are intended to prevent Palestinians from claiming and enjoying equal rights to Jewish Israelis within the territory of Israel and within the OPT [occupied Palestinian territory], and thus are intended to oppress and dominate the Palestinian people".

At least one South African political party will not be impressed by Pandor's intention to have Israel declared an apartheid state.

On Tuesday, the National Assembly adopted a motion that the government should cut diplomatic ties with Israel, albeit that this motion is not binding on the government. 

When the motion was debated last week, African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) leader Kenneth Meshoe said to label Israel as an apartheid state was a lie that was coined by "haters" of the country.

"Furthermore, to insinuate that Israel does not own land they are living on is another lie that the ACDP rejects.

"It is only the enemies of Israel, the ignorant and the people who are allergic to truth, who stubbornly refuse to accept the fact that the land the Israelis are living on was given by God to Abraham and his descendants long before the existence of Christianity and Islam."