South Africa criticizes world order that it sees as serving the interests of US and its rich-country allies
\nJOHANNESBURG
\nSouth Africa\u2019s genocide case against Israel may have ruffled feathers in the capitals of vital Western trading partners, but it has boosted the country\u2019s standing as a champion of the downtrodden Global South.
\nThat gamble is likely to pay off, thanks to renewed rivalry for Africa\u2019s minerals and UN votes between the West, China and Russia, turbocharged by Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine.
\nThe International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected Israel\u2019s petition to throw out the case on Friday, telling it to prevent its troops committing genocide against Palestinians, although it stopped short of ordering the ceasefire South Africa demanded.
\nIt did not decide the merits of the genocide allegations, which could take years.
\n\u201cIt was reasonably damning,\u201d said Susan Booysen, Director of Research at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection.
\n\u201cIt was quite unambiguous … in highlighting the abuses … so I think it gives them (South Africa) quite a bit of esteem as an international spokesperson for human rights,\u201d she added.
\nAnd while Israel\u2019s allies in Washington, Brussels and London might grumble, they can scarcely afford to alienate Africa\u2019s industrial and diplomatic heavyweight – especially with the United States\u2019 main superpower rival, China, wooing the continent with money, railways and tech transfers.
\n\u201cIf you\u2019re going to start punishing South Africa for going to the International Court of Justice, then you\u2019re going to have to start punishing a lot of other African countries (for supporting the Palestinians),\u201d Steven Friedman, director of South Africa\u2019s Centre for the Study of Democracy, said.
\n\u201cIf you do that, then you might as well send (Chinese President) Xi Jinping a letter saying \u2018You\u2019ve won\u2019.\u201d
\nUnderscoring the point, on a visit to Angola on Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said of South Africa\u2019s ICJ case, \u201cwhether or not we have a disagreement, one particular matter doesn\u2019t take away from the important work that we\u2019re doing together in so many other areas.\u201d
\n\u2018Point of pride\u2019
\nThe Gaza war has displaced some 1.9 million Palestinians, killed at least 26,000, according to Gaza officials, and inspired global outrage. But in a world so bitterly divided over the issue, moral backing from the World Court goes a long way.
\n\u201cThe ICJ didn\u2019t give South Africa all it wanted, but this ruling is a resounding vindication of Pretoria\u2019s decision to bring the case, and a powerful indictment of Israeli policy,\u201d Human Rights lawyer Reed Brody said.
\nSouth Africa projects itself as critic of a world order it sees as mainly serving the interests of the United States and its rich-country allies, who promote international norms they enforce on foes but often not on friends nor even on themselves.
\nDuring the Covid-19 pandemic, it was South Africa\u2019s President Cyril Ramaphosa who denounced the rich world for hogging all the vaccines, noted Chris Ogunmodede, analyst and editor of World Politics Review.
\nSouth Africa was instrumental in marketing BRICS – the forum led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and itself – as an alternative to Western hegemony, with 40 nations queuing to join last year.
\n\u201c(The ICJ case) is … another indication of the important place South Africa seeks to occupy as (one of) the continent\u2019s leading voices on global affairs,\u201d Ogunmodede said.
\nSouth African officials often compare their erstwhile struggle against white minority rule to the Palestinian cause – a comparison Israel strongly disputes.
\nThat they take no such unequivocal moral stance on Russia has raised eyebrows. Last year, the government unsuccessfully sought a waiver from its obligation to arrest President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine so he could attend a BRICS summit.
\n\u201c(An) elementary principle of morality is that it can\u2019t be selective. South Africa did not do right by the Ukrainian people,\u201d author and columnist Ferial Haffajee wrote in the national Daily Maverick this month, but she praised South Africa for picking a first-rate legal team to fight the ICJ case.
\nSouth Africans are proud of the strong rule of law that emerged from their anti-apartheid struggle, which often resolves rancorous domestic political disputes.
\n\u201cSeeing their judges on the bench of the ICJ wearing South African scarves is like watching the Springboks (national rugby team) win the world cup,\u201d Chris Vandome, a senior southern Africa researcher at Chatham House, said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South Africa criticizes world order that it sees as serving the interests of US and its rich-country allies JOHANNESBURG South Africa\u2019s genocide case against Israel may have ruffled feathers in the capitals of vital Western trading partners, but it has boosted the country\u2019s standing as a champion of the downtrodden Global South. That gamble is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-383492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n