West Jerusalem wants to pressure South Africa into dropping its claim at International Court of Justice in The Hague

Israel has started lobbying the US Congress to put pressure on South Africa and get it to drop the Gaza genocide case coming before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Axios reported, citing a memo to diplomats.

Pretoria brought the case against West Jerusalem last December, arguing that actions by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the Palestinian enclave since October 7 amounted to genocide. 

“We are asking you to immediately work with lawmakers on the federal and state level, with governors and Jewish organizations to put pressure on South Africa to change its policy towards Israel and to make clear that continuing their current actions like supporting Hamas and pushing anti-Israeli moves in international courts will come with a heavy price,” said a cable sent from the Israeli Foreign Ministry to the embassy in Washington and all the consulates in the US on Monday, as quoted by Axios.

Israeli diplomats were told to push for bills targeting South Africa on state and federal level, so “that even if they won’t materialize, presenting them and talking about them will be important,” the memo further said.

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They are also supposed to pressure members of Congress to publicly condemn South Africa’s actions and suggest this could result in suspension of trade relations between Washington and Pretoria. According to Axios, this is “unlikely,” because the US wants to maintain ties with South Africa in order to counter influence from Russia and China.

The ICJ has set an October 28 deadline for South Africa to present arguments for continuing the case. West Jerusalem hopes that the US will pressure the new coalition government to drop the matter before then, according to the outlet.

Israel reportedly sees an opportunity in the fact that the African National Congress lost the majority it held for 30 years in the legislative elections this June, and has had to rely on a multi-party coalition. West Jerusalem’s diplomats are supposed to tell the ANC that it has a chance to pursue dialogue with Israel “instead of boycotts and punishments,” according to the cable.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry declined Axios’ request for comment.

Israel declared war on Hamas after the Gaza-based Palestinian group launched a series of raids last October 7 that were blamed for the deaths of 1,200 Israelis. Since then, almost 41,000 Palestinians have been killed and another 95,000 wounded in Israeli military operations, while most of Gaza has been turned to rubble and made uninhabitable.

South Africa has alleged that Israel’s actions are “genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group.”