South Africa reminds ICJ of Netanyahu’s Amalek rhetoric to invoke genocide against Palestinians

The South African legal team on Thursday used Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s incitement to genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza in the first hearing session before the International Court of Justice in its lawsuit against Israel.

South Africa’s lawyer and legal activist Tembeka Ngcukaitobi reminded the world court that Netanyahu, on Oct. 28, used the biblical Amalek narrative while inciting his soldiers to attack Gaza, a violent theory that refers to entirely crushing the population of Gaza, including its women and children.

The South African lawyer also said that Netanyahu repeated the Amalek narrative in another letter to the Israeli soldiers on Nov. 3.

“Let the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu’s] words speak for themselves,” Ngcukaitobi said, then screened a video for Netanyahu while using the Amalek narrative in a televised speech.

He also brought other words of incitement to genocide against Palestinians, including Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s speech that Israel is “fighting against human animals” in Gaza and that he imposed a “complete siege” with no food, electricity, and water entering the city.

He also reminded the ICJ that an Israeli parliament member called for the “erasure of the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth.”
During the course of the Israeli war on Gaza, Netanyahu quoted scriptures in his speeches at least three times to justify the onslaught on Gaza.