On Monday, South Africa continued its case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and delivered evidence showing how the Israeli government is violating the Genocide Convention in its ongoing bombardment and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.
South Africa vs Israel is a courageous jurisprudential effort to hold Israel accountable. It is also a rare instance when an African state has used the highest global court to access international law against a state that sees itself and is accepted, as part of the Global North.
However, while the South African government wages lawfare against Israeli genocide at The Hague, it also stands accused of fuelling the Israeli war machine that has already killed more than 40,000 Palestinians.
Between October 2023 and October 2024, South Africa exported more than a million tonnes of coal to Israel, valued at about R2bn. This accounted for more than 15% of coal consumed by Israel. South Africa is now Israel’s main supplier behind Russia after Colombian president Gustavo Petro banned coal exports to Israel in August.
These coal supplies, according to the Global Energy Embargo for Palestine — an international coalition calling for a complete energy embargo on Israel — have enabled Israel to continue its bombardment of Palestinians in Gaza.
“The terrifying reality of genocide and occupation faced daily by Palestinians is made possible by the finance, weapons and energy transported to Israel by countries around the world, including South Africa,” says the coalition.
The South African government may well be complicit in the very genocide that it is fighting at the ICJ.
“Arms, weapons, ammunition, vehicles and other military supplies, including technology and fuel, are essential for the activities of the Israeli air force, ground forces, and navy and are making an essential contribution to the violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza and genocidal acts against the Palestinians.
“Third states [like South Africa] must consider that their military or other assistance to Israel’s military operations in Gaza may put them at risk of being complicit in genocide under the Genocide Convention,” says Irene Pietropaoli, senior fellow in business and human rights at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.
The issue of the ongoing coal exports to Israel and our potential complicity in Israel’s genocide is a political hot potato for South Africa’s government departments. Though the department of international relations & cooperation (Dirco) is centrally involved in the ICJ case against Israel, spokesperson Chrispin Phiri, insists: “The sale of coal by South Africa to Israel is a trade-related matter that may be best addressed by the competent national departments.”
Bongani Lukhele, the spokesperson for the department of trade, industry and competition (Dtic), confirmed on August 27: “This matter is receiving the attention of the department. We will share the response as soon as it has been obtained.” At the time of writing, Dtic had still not sent a response.
Phiri says Dirco is leading and engaging other government departments to ascertain what South African coal is being used for in Israel. “In the event that [South African] coal is used to aid the conflict, the provisions of the Foreign Military Assistance Act may be applicable.”
Israel’s coal imports are used to power its centralised electricity grid which is run by the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC). The Israeli government makes no secret of the fact that the IEC grid also provides electricity to the illegal and expanding settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) as well as to Israel’s military infrastructures. South Africa is powering the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
The duty to prevent genocide requires states to employ all means available to them. This obligation, says Pietropaoli, is one of conduct and not of result. “It is not about whether the state achieves the result of preventing genocide, but whether it took all measures which were within its power and which might have contributed to preventing the genocide.”
Our ‘business as usual’ approach to Israel is part of the international community’s inaction that has enabled Israel for decades to continue its occupation, apartheid, and now genocide, without any consequences.
The South African government hasn’t taken all measures within its power. As we know, sanctions are powerful weapons that can be used to pressure states to comply with international law, but they have not been used by the South African government. Post-apartheid South Africa has always been open for business with Israel and its illegal settlements.
In his address to the UN Gen Assembly in September, President Cyril Ramaphosa stated clearly that Israel was practising apartheid against the Palestinians: “The violence the Palestinian people are being subjected to is a grim continuation of more than half a century of apartheid. We South Africans know what apartheid looks like. We lived through it ... We will not remain silent and watch as apartheid is perpetrated against others.”
Yet that is exactly what South Africa has been doing since 1994. Our ‘business as usual’ approach to Israel is part of the international community’s inaction that has enabled Israel for decades to continue its occupation, apartheid and now genocide without any consequences.
South Africa should be emulating Colombia. Colombia was the largest coal exporter to Israel and accounted for more than 60% of Israel’s coal last year. In May, Colombia broke diplomatic relations with Israel. Three months later, President Petro ended coal exports.
South Africa’s coal supply to Israel accounts for just 0.3% of our coal exports, but it is an important source of energy for Israel. If South Africa cut this supply, it would significantly hinder Israel’s war effort.
As we have seen with Russia, boycotts, divestment and sanctions are an appropriate response to belligerent regimes and violators of international law. Boycotting an occupier is neither complicated nor controversial — if there is real political will.
The case for boycotting Israel is growing rapidly. January’s genocide judgment is not the only damning ICJ ruling against Israel this year. On 19 July, the ICJ agreed that Israel’s practices in the OPT amounted to colonisation, racial discrimination and apartheid. The court ordered Israel to end its military occupation and emphasised the responsibility of countries to delegitimise the occupation and act to end it.
South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel and its consistent diplomatic support for Palestine is deeply valued by Palestinians. However, this does not absolve South Africa’s complicity in, literally, fuelling Israel’s genocide and occupation of Palestinians.
Suraya Dadoo is a writer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Find her on X: @Suraya_Dadoo
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