South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday November 21 accused Israel of “war crimes” and “genocide” in Gaza and called for an “immediate and complete ceasefire”, as he opened an extraordinary virtual Summit of emerging Brics countries devoted to the conflict.
“The collective punishment of Palestinian civilians through the illegal use of force by Israel is a war crime”, declared Mr. Ramaphosa in his opening remarks at this meeting of the five-country bloc (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), which is due to be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.
“The deliberate denial of medicine, fuel, food, and water to the people of Gaza is tantamount to genocide,” Ramaphosa added. “We urge the international community to agree on urgent and concrete actions to end the suffering in Gaza and pave the way for a just and peaceful resolution of this conflict,” he pleaded, drawing up a list of these proposed actions.
In addition to an “immediate and complete” ceasefire, he called for the deployment of a rapid UN force to “monitor the cessation of hostilities” and “protect civilians”. He also called on “all countries” to “show restraint and stop fueling this conflict, in particular by “ceasing to supply arms to the parties”.
For his part, Xi Jinping called for an “International Peace Conference” to find “a just solution to the question of Palestine”.
South Africa is one of the countries most critical of the massive and deadly Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, in retaliation for the bloody attacks on Israel on October 7 by Hamas, which controlled Gaza at the time. On Friday, Mr. Ramaphosa joined four other countries in requesting an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into the war.
Pretoria also announced earlier this month that it had recalled its diplomats posted in Israel for consultations. And on Monday, Israel announced the recall of its ambassador to South Africa.