South Africa’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusi Madonsela, condemned Israel’s continued practices that perpetuate occupation and genocide in the Gaza Strip, despite advisory opinions and provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) directing Tel Aviv to abide by international laws designed to protect human rights.
Madonsela revealed in a press interview that the situation in the Gaza Strip “has worsened since his country filed a lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice, accusing it of committing genocide in the Strip,” indicating that Israel is unwilling to abide by the court’s interim measures.
He said: “We believe that South Africa’s decision to go to the International Court of Justice was correct. The situation at the time was dangerous, but we believe that the situation in the Gaza Strip has worsened, and this once again confirms the correctness of South Africa’s decision to resort to the court to obtain provisional measures in the first stage.”
Madonsela explained that Israel “does not wish to abide by the provisional measures” issued by the court.
He added, “The international community itself believes that the situation in Gaza would not have reached what it is today if Israel had adhered to the interim measures.”
He stressed that Israel had not complied with the advisory opinion calling for a full withdrawal from the occupied territories within one year, adding: “We see no indication that Israel is prepared to comply.”
Accordingly, Madonsela considered that Israel had turned the process of distributing humanitarian aid into a “death trap” by defying these measures.
“The measures taken by Israel under the current aid distribution mechanism are completely inconsistent with the interim measures announced by the court last year,” he said.
In his assessment of Israel’s proposal to transform the Rafah area in southern Gaza into a “humanitarian city” to which Palestinians would be forced to move without leaving, Madonsela said: “The so-called [Israeli and US proposed] ‘humanitarian camp’, from our perspective, is nothing more than a concentration camp, and it is in stark contrast to the ICC advisory opinion.”
