More countries must recognise a Palestinian state and stand up to Israel to stop its “genocidal activities”, South Africa’s Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told AFP in an interview Tuesday.
Pretoria has been a leading critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, bringing a case before the UN’s top court in December 2023 arguing that its war in the Palestinian territory amounted to genocide.
As some of Israel’s allies “are now also saying, no, this can’t continue, it means that it is bringing us closer and closer to the Israel regime (stopping) the genocidal activities”, Lamola said.
South Africa’s case before the International Court of Justice argues that the war in Gaza, which began with the militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, breached the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention. Israel has strongly denied that accusation.
Several nations have added their weight to the proceedings, including Spain, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Turkey, Chile and Libya.
The leaders of France, the United Kingdom and Canada have meanwhile said they plan to recognise a Palestinian state in September, and urged other nations to do so.
“We call for more countries to continue to recognise Palestine,” Lamola told AFP.
“This will put the pressure so that we can end up with a ceasefire.”
After 22 months of combat sparked by the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas that killed 1,219 people and saw hundreds kidnapped, the Israeli army has devastated large parts of the Palestinian territory.
More than 60,933 Palestinians have been killed, according to figures from Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry, and humanitarian agencies have warned that the territory’s 2.4 million people are slipping into a catastrophic famine.
Lamola said that had the world acted when South Africa made its case at the ICJ, “we would not be where we are”.
“It’s clear starvation is emerging, famine, and all these are things we warned about in our ICJ case — that this will lead to famine, will lead to complete cleansing of the population,” he said.
“It’s rather late, yes, but it’s better than never. So let them act, let them support, let them put the pressure.”
– Relations at ‘a low’ –
South Africa-US relations have “reached a low” with Washington attempting to interfere in domestic issues, the minister said.
The two nations have been at odds over a range of domestic and international policies, including Pretoria’s ICJ case and debunked claims by US President Donald Trump that white South Africans face discrimination.
Tariffs of 30 percent — the highest on any sub-Saharan African country — are set to hit certain South African exports Friday in the absence of a trade deal.
“In the past we have not had this situation where another government would want to interfere on a domestic issue like it is now,” Lamola said.
“Since the last 30 years, there have been disagreements with the US administration on a number of issues, but the diplomatic lines of engagement have always been open,” he said.
South Africa’s failure to reach a new trade deal has been criticised at home, including by parties in the coalition government which have accused President Cyril Ramaphosa and his team of diplomatic missteps.
But Lamola told AFP that Pretoria had done “everything possible under the sun” to reach a deal.
Political disagreements had not come up in trade talks with the United States, he said.
– Trump ‘welcome’ at G20 –
“The situation with the US for any country, not just for South Africa, is unpredictable,” he said.
Equally uncertain is US participation in the G20 summit hosted in November in Johannesburg, which Trump last week said he “probably won’t” attend.
“He’s welcome to come to South Africa and participate,” Lamola said, “but it’s his decision.”
The minister reiterated Pretoria’s intent to promote its theme of “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability” at the high-level summit.
“The period of unilateralism has passed. We will no longer ever go back there,” he said.
“The world must accept it is now the period where we are all interconnected, we all have to act together to find solutions for climate change, inequality, artificial intelligence. We all have to work as one global community.”
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