As South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP), one of our aims is to combat Zionist disinformation. That is why we must respond to a statement issued by Rolene Marks of the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) on March 16, 2026. The statement affects a moral outrage that only demonstrates just how detached this organisation is from reality.
The SAZF’s attempt to portray South Africa’s genocide case against Israel as “baseless” ignores the overwhelming evidence, the findings of human rights organisations, and the growing consensus of the international community. In reaffirming US foreign policy, it also places faith in a United States government that has no moral credibility.
We, as South African Jews, refuse to let our identity be weaponised to defend the indefensible. The SAZF does not speak for many Jews in South Africa and around the world who recognise that never again means never again for anyone. While the Zionist Federation demonises South Africa for launching the ICJ case, we instead call on South Africa to do more to stop the genocide.
We note that we are currently Israel’s number one exporter of coal. We urge the SA government to follow through on its duty to isolate Israel by instituting a total trade embargo against the Zionist state and immediately ceasing all diplomatic relations with Israel. South Africa sponsored a United Nations resolution and is a founder member of The Hague Group to give effect to these policies.
The SAZF engages in genocide denialism by misrepresenting the ICJ
The SAZF’s central claim—that the ICJ’s preliminary ruling did not find that Israel was committing genocide—is a deliberate distortion. The Court’s January 2024 Order (para. 54) did not merely determine that Palestinians have a “plausible right to be protected.” The Court found that South Africa had established a prima facie case that the rights claimed by Palestinians—their right not to be subjected to genocide—are at risk of irreparable prejudice. This is a fundamental distinction.
- In criminal law procedure, this is simply a finding that there is a case to answer. It is not an obscure legal formula; it is the threshold for any case to proceed.
- The ICJ did not stop there. It issued subsequent provisional orders precisely because Israel failed to comply with its obligations. The February 2024 Dossier submitted by South Africa to the UN Security Council—detailing Israel’s non-compliance with those orders—contains evidence from Israeli politicians and soldiers that is, in itself, damning.
Evidence of genocide is overwhelming
The SAZF claims the accusation is “legally unfounded,” yet neither it nor its allies have specified what evidence South Africa’s case lacks to meet the standard of genocide. Instead, they rely on rhetoric. This silence is telling.
The evidence is meticulously documented by the world’s most respected human rights organisations and UN bodies:
- Human Rights Watch, in its World Report 2026, documented that Israeli forces escalated their atrocities in 2025, including “war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide, and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in Gaza, killing, maiming, starving and forcibly displacing Palestinians and destroying their homes, schools, and infrastructure at a scale unprecedented.”
- The UN Commission of Inquiry issued a report in September 2025 explicitly finding that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, underscoring a “growing consensus among human rights organisations and experts.”
- The UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, in her October 2025 report “Gaza Genocide: a collective crime,” detailed how the ongoing genocide is an “internationally enabled crime.” We challenge the SAZF to identify what is antisemitic in this report—other than its factual assembly of evidence pointing to genocide.
- Israel’s own human rights organisations, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, have declared Israel’s actions a genocide. They are joined by leading Israeli scholars of genocide and the Holocaust, including Omer Bartov, Raz Segal, Shmuel Lederman, Amos Goldberg and Lee Mordecai, who have all added their voices to the global consensus that a genocide is taking place.
The SAZF and its allies are laying the groundwork to dismiss the findings of the ICJ by predictably accusing the institution and its proponents of antisemitism. Yet they offer not a single word to explain the incriminating picture assembled by these scholars, jurists, and institutions.
The world stands with international law, not with the US-Israel axis
The SAZF boasts that the US, Hungary, and Fiji support Israel’s defence at the ICJ. This is a telling selection. The United States is so entangled in Israel’s crimes that it is difficult to tell the two apart. It is frequently the only country vetoing Security Council sanctions against Israel. Hungary, meanwhile, is governed by a far-right party ideologically aligned with colonial expansion. Its leader, Victor Orban, has been frequently accused of antisemitism.
The SAZF also neglected to mention that 18 countries, including some of Israel’s traditional allies, have joined South Africa’s case. Germany, meanwhile, has since backtracked from its plan to intervene on Israel’s behalf.
The interventions by the Netherlands and Iceland are particularly damning. The Netherlands argued that “forced displacement, withholding humanitarian aid and starvation of Palestinians could be a demonstration of genocidal intent.” Iceland emphasised that attacks on children are “particularly indicative of intent to destroy the group.”
These are not “anti-democratic” nations; they are European democracies applying the law honestly.
The US is a dishonest broker without moral credibility
The SAZF presents the US intervention as a “profound diplomatic rebuke.” Instead, it is merely a defence of a key ally by an administration that has demolished any claim to moral leadership. Under Donald Trump, the United States has:
- Kidnapped the head of state of Venezuela in brazen contravention of international law.
- Maintained a crippling blockade against Cuba.
- Launched a catastrophic and unjustified war of aggression against Iran.
- Threatened to invade and take over the territory of its NATO allies, Denmark (Greenland) and Canada.
- Overseen the creation of the “Board of Peace” for Gaza, featuring no Palestinian members, providing cover for ethnic cleansing so that Trump and his allies can profit from luxury real estate developments.
For the SAZF to hold up this regime—led by a convicted felon found legally responsible for sexual abuse—as a paragon of “democratic values” is a profound embarrassment. The US rejection of the genocide finding is not a sign of the case’s weakness, but a reflection of its own complicity.
The SAZF does not speak for South Africans
The SAZF claims that “millions of South Africans reject the government’s attempt to speak on their behalf.” It provides no polling data to support this. What we do know is that the case is not merely the will of the government.
A statement released by the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) a month ago—endorsed by political parties, trade unions, and faith-based organisations representing millions of South Africans—affirmed that the case reflects the will of the people. It also highlighted the mounting coercive pressures from the US to withdraw the case, including the appointment of a new ambassador whose stated mandate is to do exactly that.
The SAZF’s statement is a desperate attempt to obscure the reality of Israel’s actions with legalistic jargon and appeals to a “democratic world” that is increasingly able to see through the lies that enable the Zionist regime to continue to act with impunity.
We call on all South Africans to reject the SAZF’s attempt to sow confusion and provide cover for crimes against humanity. We stand with the people of Gaza, with the 18 countries upholding the Genocide Convention, and with South Africa’s brave decision to launch this case despite the backlash from those invested in defending the indefensible.