'We will not be silenced': Ramaphosa defends SA's support for Palestine

CAPE TOWN - President Cyril Ramaphosa has once again defended South Africa’s support for Palestinians in Gaza, saying government was not being inconsistent in its foreign policy. 

He said the move to approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on genocide claims against Israel should also not be viewed as being against South Africa’s Jewish community. 

Speaking at the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday, Ramaphosa dispelled claims that government had congratulated Palestinian militant group Hamas for its 7 October attacks on Israel. 

However, he said that Israel’s retaliation on Palestinians in Gaza had been disproportionate. 

The president said that South Africa’s decision to launch a genocide case against Israel was a matter of human rights and the respect for international law. 

On Tuesday, South Africa once again applied to the court to consider Israel’s military operation in Rafah - the last safe zone in Gaza.

Ramaphosa said that government was challenging the hypocrisy of nations who believed they could teach South Africa lessons on human rights. 

"Yes, we have a big mouth when it comes to issues of human rights and we will not be silenced. We will continue to use this big mouth that we have." 

Ramaphosa also responded to a Jewish Cape Town resident, who claimed the move makes South Africa complicit in a genocide against Jewish communities around the world. 

"When I met the Jewish Board of Deputies, I spoke out about any form of attack against South African Jews, any form of threatening or attack on their business, because in the end we are all South Africans." 

He said that South Africa would continue to speak out against oppression, discrimination and suffering wherever it occured.