South Africa: “Israel” Sets Precedent for Countries to Defy Top UN Court

By Staff, Agencies

South Africa's foreign minister has said that the “Israeli” entity is setting a precedent for leaders to defy the top UN court.

Speaking on Tuesday, Naledi Pandor also said that the entity is carrying out a campaign of starvation in Gaza.

South Africa has hauled the “Israeli” entity before the International Court of Justice [ICJ] over its genocide in Gaza, infuriating the “Israeli” enttiy and drawing US censure.

Pandor said that the entity had defied a January interim ruling by the ICJ that it should take action to prevent acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

"The provisional measures have been entirely ignored by ‘Israel’," Pandor said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace during a visit to Washington.

"We're seeing mass starvation now and famine before our very eyes," she said.

 "I think we, as humanity, need to look at ourselves in horror and dismay and to be really worried that we have set an example," she added.

Pandor said that the “Israeli” entity’s actions may mean other nations believe that "there's license – I can do what I want and I will not be stopped."

She said that South Africa's post-apartheid democracy was "merely practicing what is preached to us every day" by the West.

"The ICJ has not been respected. And the day an African disrespects [it] I hope we don't go to that leader and say 'Listen, you're out of bounds – because you're an African, we expect you to obey,'" she said.

South Africa has called on the UN court in The Hague to order measures for the entity to stop "widespread starvation" triggered by its war in Gaza.

The United Nations has warned that the “Israeli” entity could be using starvation as a weapon in its genocidal war against Gaza by blocking the desperately needed aid into the war-battered strip.

The UN said Tuesday that the entity’s severe restrictions on aid into war-ravaged Gaza coupled with its military offensive could amount to using starvation as a “weapon of war”, which would be a “war crime”.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk condemned the rampant hunger and looming famine in Gaza.

He lamented the world’s inaction in the face of what he described as a man-made catastrophe despite the UN’s repeated alerts in the past months.