South Africa recently declared that the incendiary song “Kill the Boer” is not hate speech or genocidal, but told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague on Thursday that phrases like “destroy Hamas” proved Israel’s “genocidal intent” in Gaza.
South Africa presented its case as it urged the ICJ to intervene in the war, which Hamas started on October 7 with a massive terror attack against Israel, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping roughly 240 more as it raped, mutilated, and looted Israelis.
In its brief, South Africa could find no actual evidence of Israel attempting to kill as many civilians as possible, but rather cited phrases by Israeli leaders, such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Israel would “destroy Hamas’s capabilities.”
Ironically, South Africa’s government has refused to condemn the song “Kill the Boer,” sung by black nationalists to threaten white farmers. Defenders of the song, and the courts, say it is not to be taken literally, despite ongoing murders of white farmers.
South Africa’s legal team took a radically different approach at The Hague, arguing that Netanyahu’s reference to a Biblical verse — which South Africa misquoted, citing a passage from Samuel instead of Deuteronomy — is a literal incitement to genocide.
An Israeli government spokesman, Mark Regev, told reporters Thursday that South Africa was, in effect, defending Hamas, and defying South Africa’s own ideals as a supposed “Rainbow Nation” that aspired to oppose all forms of racism and prejudice.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
