More than 1,000 Christians gathered in the Hague on Thursday to march for Israel and against the opening of South Africa’s trial against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
SA accused Israel of subjecting Palestinians to genocidal acts, a claim that nearly 30 South African Christian organizations refuted in an open letter earlier this week.
“Our Netherlands National Directors Jacob and Hennie Keegstra and other ICEJ [International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem] supporters were among the Christians standing with Israel against this false charge,” ICEJ wrote in a statement on Facebook that included several photos of protesters calling to bring the Israeli hostages out of Gaza and back home.
The open letter, forwarded to the office of SA’s Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, who is representing SA’s case in the Hague, called SA’s court move “fundamentally flawed.”
It also said the decision went against the best interest of SA and could have detrimental political and economic consequences.
“The South African government has prejudiced the interests of its people to achieve the political and religious objectives of others,” the letter read. “The government is also aware that the one-sided approach it has adopted has placed its Jewish citizens at risk by inciting antisemitism as well as eroding the freedom of religion of Christians in South Africa.”
Lamola responds
On Thursday morning, the organizations heard back from Lamola’s office, receiving a letter signed by his spokesperson, Phiri Chrispin.
“Thank you for your statement,” Chrispin wrote in an email addressed to the ChristianView Network, a lobby group in SA that helped lead the letter appeal. “We appreciate your effort to share your views with us. Albeit, your statement is laden with a number of factual inaccuracies, and international law principles do not support some of the arguments.
“We will outline our case in great detail today before the world court. You may follow it on various news platforms,” the letter concluded.
The Jerusalem Post received a copy of the email.
Philip Rosenthal, one of the signatories of the statement to the government and director of ChristianView Network, told the Post that although the Christian network cannot stop the process at this stage, “[they] plan to meet with them to further dialogue.”