Pro-Palestinian demonstration held in Cape Town as ICJ opens hearing

South African legal experts, academics, lawyers and Pro-Palestine organisations picketed Thursday (Jan. 11) outside Western Cape High Court in Cape Town.

The move was a show of solidarity for the nation's delegation appearing before the International Court of Justice. South Africa wants the court order Israel to halt its deadly campaign.

"South Africa brought its application to be able to ensure that there is a ceasefire and that Israel is actually committing these acts of genocide. In addition to that we all know that the court in itself consists of 15 members of different countries and that South Africa and Israel has also appointed additional judges to be able to serve on the bench," Seeham Samaai, attorney and Director of Women’s Legal Centre said.

"We are hoping that in the next month the order, that the remedies which we have asked, that we are given those remedies. And then from there we will go into the main application.”

In Cape Town's Bo Kaap neighbourhood, residents showed support for the Palestinian people with a range of murals and by flying Palestinian flags outside their homes.

Resident Osman said the reason they show solidarity with Palestine is because they come from a past of Apartheid.

"I think one of the things that we have in our favour in South Africa, we come from that past and that experience of Apartheid South Africa. We have all witnessed and endured the hardships of what it felt to live in the Apartheid era," he says.

"We have also fought to liberate our country from that Apartheid scourge and we have, that is why it is a natural feeling for us to actually associate ourselves with the people of Palestine who are fighting the same type of scourge on a different level and we would say that Apartheid Israel is also our enemy if it is the enemy of Palestine.”

Rights organizations have long accused Israel of the crime of Apartheid under the Apartheid Convention and Rome Statute namely.

The crime of apartheid under the Apartheid Convention and Rome Statute consists of three primary elements: an intent to maintain a system of domination by one racial group over another; systematic oppression by one racial group over another; and one or more inhumane acts, as defined, carried out on a widespread or systematic basis pursuant to those policies.