APA-Windhoek (Namibia) Namibia has joined the growing number of countries that have expressed support for South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
South Africa filed the lawsuit against Israel at the end of December 2023, accusing the Middle East country of genocide in its war on Gaza that has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians over the past three months.
In a statement on Wednesday, Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation executive director Penda Naanda said Namibia “reiterates its strong condemnation against Israel for the killing of innocent civilians and forcible displacements of Palestinians in Gaza and the remainder of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
“Namibian maintains the position that these acts mentioned above and the deliberate infliction on Palestinians in Gaza of conditions of life that can bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part constitutes genocide, the prohibition of which is a peremptory norm under international law,” Naanda said.
She said Namibia supported all international efforts aimed at advancing “the realisation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.”
“It is against this background and its own history of being subjected to an illegal occupation and apartheid that Namibia is, amongst others, participating in the ongoing advisory proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding the legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
Other countries that have already expressed support for the case include Bolivia, Jordan, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan and Turkey as well as members of the 57-strong Organisation of Islamic Countries bloc.
The ICJ is expected to hear arguments from South Africa and Israel on Thursday and Friday this week.
JN/APA