South Africa’s International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor has expressed concern at the “very negative” stance taken against the country following its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
According to media reports monitored here, Pandor accused some US lawmakers of using their country’s position as the world’s largest economy to harm investment and employment prospects in her country in retaliation to South Africa’s decision to take Israel to the ICJ.
South Africa filed a case at the ICJ in December 2023, accusing Israel of failing to uphold its commitments under the 1948 Genocide Convention.
In an interim ruling on January 26 this year, the UN court deemed South Africa’s claims plausible, and ordered provisional measures for Israel’s government to prevent genocidal acts and allow humanitarian flow into the Gaza Strip.
“In terms of responses, unfortunately there are some legislators in the United States of America that have taken a very negative position against my country,” Pandor told journalists on Sunday on the sidelines of the International Diplomacy Forum in Turkey.
Some US lawmakers have recently taken a critical stance against South Africa, viewing Pretoria’s pursuit of justice as detrimental to bilateral relations and threatening Washington’s security.
This has seen some lawmakers introducing a bill in the US Congress in February, calling for a review of Washington’s bilateral relationship with Pretoria.
Pandor said South Africa is a sovereign nation, which had a right to take up the case against Israel even though many countries did not agree with its support for Palestine.
“This is something we have always had, and we will not turn our backs on the Palestinian people,” the minister said.
She added: “So, we have to continue to lobby the American people to say, ‘to act against South Africa when they were pursuing a very moral and correct issue in the global space, would be entirely wrong.”
NM/jn/APA