South Africa has regained some of its lost moral authority with ICJ genocide case against Israel - Prof Saths Cooper

A Palestinian man holds a portrait of late Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat and South Africa's anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela before raising the South African national flag outside the municipality building in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on January 12, 2024. - South Africa has launched an emergency case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) arguing that Israel stands in breach of the UN Genocide Convention, signed in 1948 in the wake of the Holocaust. Israel said on January 12 it was not seeking to destroy the Palestinian people, as it hit back at what it called a "profoundly distorted" and "malevolent" genocide case against it at the UN's top court. Picture: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP

A Palestinian man holds a portrait of late Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat and South Africa's anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela before raising the South African national flag outside the municipality building in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on January 12, 2024. - South Africa has launched an emergency case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) arguing that Israel stands in breach of the UN Genocide Convention, signed in 1948 in the wake of the Holocaust. Israel said on January 12 it was not seeking to destroy the Palestinian people, as it hit back at what it called a "profoundly distorted" and "malevolent" genocide case against it at the UN's top court. Picture: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP

Published Jan 13, 2024

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On Thursday, I joined many of you in watching the tour de force by the outstanding legal team representing South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to stop the genocide in Gaza.

The clearly evidenced manner in which respected lawyers – Dr Adila Hassim SC, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC, Prof John Dugard SC, Prof Max Du Plessis SC, Ms Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC, and Prof Vaughan Lowe KC – presented the case to protect life and prevent further genocide, was compelling.

Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) prior to the hearing of the genocide case against Israel, brought by South Africa. Picture: Remko De Waal/ANP via AFP
Advocate Adila Hassim at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) prior to the hearing of the genocide case against Israel, brought by South Africa. Picture: Remko De Waal/ANP via AFP
THE HAGUE - President Donoghue (M) attending the International Court of Justice (ICJ) prior to the hearing of the genocide case against Israel, brought by South Africa. According to the South Africans, Israel is currently committing genocidal acts against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Picture: Remko De Waal/ANP via AFP

Similar to our rugby World Cup win in October last year, Thursday’s ICJ hearing truly made us proud to be South African, as we start a year that can be fraught with more decline and decay, or be alive with the enormous possibilities that a country standing together, finding one another across artificial barriers imposed by our imprisoned history, engaging vigorously on issues that impact us to find viable ways forward, ignoring the bleating of inane self-serving, inward-vested, self-important persons from scores of political parties and millionaires who wield extraordinary power; all promising us heaven, knowing that they will deliver us unto hell if we allow them to; can offer.

Most of us know that terrible geopolitics and tiresome and failing narratives – where oppression and dehumanisation assume a mindless, alluringly misguided and abnormal value – can once again so easily prevail post-the ICJ case.

Kabalan Frangieh (C-L), Lebanon ambassador to South Africa, Hanan Jarrar (C-R), Palestinian ambassador to South Africa , Aysegul Kandas (3rd R), Turkish ambassador to South Africa and Ahmed El Fadly (3rd L), Egyptian ambassador to South Africa watch in Pretoria on January 11, 2024 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearing of the case against Israel brought by South Africa in The Hague. - Lawyers for Pretoria are presenting their case at the UN's top court in The Hague, where South Africa lodged an urgent appeal to force Israel to "immediately suspend" its military operations in Gaza. Picture: Phill Magakoe/AFP

This will allow the perpetuation of crimes against humanity, and demonstrate that international forums work for the entitled and privileged few, against the rest of us.

A negative outcome at the ICJ will likely accelerate the need for the outdated and incapacitated United Nations, which comprises 193 sovereign states, being held hostage by the ineffective Security Council – a product of World War II that ended on September 2, 1945 – to be reformed.

The five states (the US, UK, Russia, France, and China), who hold arrogated permanent veto status in the UN Security Council, manufacture, disseminate and glorify weapons and other products of mass and individual destruction, increase their numerous war bases across the globe, and control ill-gotten wealth from the time of slavery, colonisation and their sequelae.

They are largely responsible for creating more poverty, marginalisation, illness and death of the majority on our fragile planet, made unsafe and steadily degraded by their actions.

They wield enormous and undue influence over those who appear to be in power in the rest of our fragile planet.

Whatever the outcome at the ICJ, South Africa regained some of its lost moral authority after the demise – at least on paper – of apartheid that followed Nazism as a crime against humanity.

Open-minded people everywhere, who abhor war and its devastations, will ensure that our vulnerable and threatened world cannot continue in the third decade of the 21st century to remain apathetic, and so closely controlled, while giving the appearance of being liberating.

THE HAGUE - Pro-Palestinian sympathizers take action during the hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on a genocide complaint from South Africa over Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip. Picture: Koen van Weel/ANP via AFP

Continuing to find refuge in the marks of our origin, our limited socialisation and reliance on blatant peddlers of untruths who proliferate on social and mainstream media will further limit our ability to effectively mediate our complex world.

This will only crush us further, and reduce our agency, which we cannot afford to delegate to anybody else.

We are who we make ourselves to be, despite our origins and circumstances, refusing to be restricted to anybody else’s biased image. We were born and should always be free, in mind, body and spirit, and should constantly strive for inner and outer peace.

Anything else will render us ineffectual and powerless, causing us to lose hope in our innate ability to strive against adversity and be part of transforming our world into a peaceful and thriving one that we so desperately desire.

We have that power. Let’s not lose it as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of our hard-won democracy.

* Professor Saths Cooper is a psychologist who was imprisoned in Robben Island.

** The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of IOL/Independent Media.