COSATU fully supports the SA legal team in the case of genocide against the apartheid State of Israel due for the 11-12th January 2024 by the ICJ in the Hague
8 January 2024
The moment of truth has come. For more than 75 years, the people of Palestine have been subjected to the most excruciating pain of colonial occupation, land dispossession, racist barbarism and genocide by the apartheid state of Israel.
Towards that end, the years of tireless resistance and cries of the Palestinian people have fallen on deaf ears, but their perseverance and bravery made led to the growth of the international solidarity movement, which is now in hundreds of thousands the world over.
The cause of the struggle against apartheid in Israel is tied to the cause of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the overall struggle against racism, Zionism and colonial occupation wherever it happens. Therefore, its our cause, too.
This historic moment has been a result of the unwavering and principled stance by the ANC-led government and the mass of the people of South Africa in standing firmly behind the Palestinian people following the barbaric bombings, massacres and wholesale genocide in Gaza and the whole of Palestine.
COSATU is vindicated by this historic step following the 11th National Congress held in September 2012, which took a resolution to call for the criminal prosecution of Israeli state leaders, after Operation Cast lead massacres in 2009/ 2010.
The developed world has been loud in its silence, with the US, UK and the EU openly endorsing the full scale occupation and slaughter of Palestinians in line with their racial supremacist beliefs. This has also seen most mainstream trade unionists from these countries, tacitly endorsing the savage acts carried out by their ruling classes against the people of Palestine. This is a tragedy for the cause of democracy, social justice and human rights for all in the world.
Africans and all who went through colonial domination, suffered brutal racism and land dispossession would never keep quiet or be cowed when these evils show their ugly head anywhere in the world. South Africans, like all other Africans waged determined struggles for freedom and right to dignity and self rule. Therefore, this matter is a life and death issue for all who suffered and still suffer racism, dispossession and oppression of whatever form.
COSATU calls for the intensification of the efforts for the renewal and strengthening of the global solidarity movement against apartheid and all who suffer from racism, Zionism and colonial occupation, as well as other forms of oppression and injustice.
COSATU shall continue working with the ANC led alliance and all solidarity forces involved in supporting the struggle of the people of Palestine, this is at the same time as we shall intensify our work with the international progressive trade union movement, which is clear and firmly on the side of justice in Africa, the global south and throughout the whole world.
Issued by Solly Phetoe, General Secretary, COSATU, 8 January 2024
