It’s not just Israel in the dock over genocide, it’s everyone who looked away | Nimer Sultany

What has been remarkable about the last three months is the chilling disregard shown towards Palestinian civilian lives. Too many lazy talking points were used to enable so many in Europe and North America to look away, or worse, to justify complicity in what South Africa argues is a genocide, through their support for Israel both diplomatically and with arms supplies.

South Africa’s case powerfully disrupted these talking points. Unlike many who have pretended that what happened on 7 October is an external attack in which Palestinian groups crossed a sovereign border, South Africa highlighted the context of the continuing denial of self-determination and the refugees’ right to return. Despite Israeli claims to the contrary, Gaza remains occupied because Israel has effective control of the territory. South Africa argues that Israel has used starvation as a method of warfare against the impoverished ghetto, a ghetto that Israel has subjected to four highly disproportionate onslaughts since 2000.

By describing Israel’s rule over the Palestinians as an apartheid, South Africa is not only speaking from historical experience but also reiterating what many human rights organisations and UN experts have already demonstrated. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have detailed in extensive reports the apartheid system of domination, segregation and institutionalised discrimination that Israel has imposed on all Palestinians. By claiming that Israel is a democracy, too many politicians and commentators have pretended that these apartheid reports do not exist.