The Presidency of South Africa announced in a statement yesterday that South Africa has filed its Memorial to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its genocide case, South Africa v. Israel. “The Memorial—the name for the document recording the main case of South Africa against Israel—contains evidence which shows how the government of Israel has violated the genocide convention by promoting the destruction of Palestinians living in Gaza, physically killing them with an assortment of destructive weapons, depriving them access to humanitarian assistance, causing conditions of life which are aimed at their physical destruction and ignoring and defying several provisional measures of the International Court of Justice, and using starvation as a weapon of war and to further Israel’s aims to depopulate Gaza through mass death and forced displacement of Palestinians,” it said.
“The evidence will show that undergirding Israel’s genocidal acts is the special intent to commit genocide, a failure by Israel to prevent incitement to genocide, to prevent genocide itself and its failure to punish those inciting and committing acts of genocide.
“The evidence is detailed in over 750 pages of text, supported by exhibits and annexes of over 4,000 pages. South Africa’s Memorial is a reminder to the global community to remember the people of Palestine, to stand in solidarity with them and to stop the catastrophe. The devastation and suffering has been possible only because despite the ICJ and numerous UN bodies’ actions and interventions, Israel has failed to comply with its international obligations.
“Last week, the world commemorated the signing of the Charter of the United Nations seventy-nine years ago. The UN was created to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. To live up to this aspiration, all nations must insist on compliance with the UN Charter and international law. The action taken by South Africa and joined by other states is primarily to stop a genocide in Palestine peacefully, through holding Israel accountable in the institutions set up for this very purpose by the United Nations.
“Israel has been granted unprecedented impunity to breach international law and norms for as long as the UN Charter has been in existence. Israel’s continued shredding of international law has imperiled the institutions of global governance that were established to hold all states accountable.”
The Memorial itself cannot be made public according to the ICJ rules. Middle East Eye remarks that Israel has a deadline of 28 July 2025 to file a response, known as counter-memorial.
