ILAN PRESKOVSKY: The terrifying logic of the ANC’s ‘progressive’ approach to Israel

After a year of anti-Israel rhetoric, President Cyril Ramaphosa put his foot in it again two weeks ago during his speech to the UN General Assembly, by completely misrepresenting the ANC’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). He claimed “the ICJ’s orders make it clear that there is a plausible case of genocide against the people of Gaza”. Yet the ICJ never said anything of the sort.

What it actually said was: “At this stage of the proceedings, the court is not called upon to determine definitively whether the rights which SA wishes to see protected exist. It need only decide whether the rights claimed by SA, and for which it is seeking protection, are plausible. In the court’s view, the facts and circumstances ... are sufficient to conclude that at least some of the rights claimed by SA and for which it is seeking protection are plausible.”

In other words, all the ruling stated was that the civilians of Gaza had the right to be protected under the genocide clauses of the Geneva Convention; not that these rights were being contravened. As now former ICJ judge Joan Donoghue clarified on the BBC’s HardTalk programme, “It did not decide that the claim of genocide was plausible, [but] it did emphasise in the order that there was a risk of irreparable harm to the Palestinian right to be protected from genocide”. 

Since then the ICJ has cautioned Israel to be careful not to tip into genocidal actions but has never labelled Israel’s defensive war as anything close to genocidal. Indeed, it recently refused SA’s request for more time to find and present evidence that Israel has contravened the convention.

It is baffling that we have an ostensibly progressive political party and our government of national unity (GNU) that — for all its faults — is rightly lauded for its commitment to the constitution and liberal democratic values. Yet when it comes to its foreign policy in general, and regarding Israel in particular, it continually sides with, even embraces, those who represent its ideological opposite.

It is a contradiction that may be hard to forgive, but it’s hardly difficult to understand. Progressive, liberal democratic values are fine, but they don’t pay the bills. However much the ANC subscribes to such Western ideals, they don’t trump past loyalties and an alarming trend within the party towards resolute anti-Westernism.

But forget politics and individual political parties. This habit of standing firmly with even the most bloodthirsty radical Islamist terrorists against the liberal democratic state of Israel represents a far greater rot within the heart of Western civilisation — one that’s coming from the unlikeliest of places. 

Since Hamas’ invasion of Israel on October 7 2023, a year ago today, its unspeakably barbaric massacre of about 1,200 people — (mostly Jews, yes, but also non-Israeli nationals and Arab-Israelis) — and the kidnapping of more than 250 more, and the ensuing war that has resulted from it in Gaza, Lebanon and now directly against Iran, anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism have exploded worldwide. Cries of “gas the Jews”, “globalise the intifada” and “Viva Hamas, viva!” have been heard on the streets of major Western cities, while attacks on Jews have increased in both frequency and intensity.

Some of this comes from the far right, of course, but such behaviour is expected of white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Far more disturbing is that along with Islamists (again, no surprise there) the worst of this comes not from white Christian nationalists but from hard left-wing “progressives” — especially ones who make up the overwhelming majority of both the student and faculty bodies of elite universities.          

I am not suggesting Israel and its government are above criticism. There are perfectly valid arguments against the settlement movement, against aspects of the way this war has been fought, and against the way certain far-right politicians have incited hatred, but there is a world of difference between criticising policies and the actions of individuals, and taking the approach that anti-Israel “progressives” have taken. To them, no matter what happens, Israel is always in the wrong, and radical Islamist terror groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah are always, if not right, then at least justified in what they do. 

Take the events of the past couple of weeks. After almost an entire year accusing Israel of war crimes, genocide and indiscriminately killing civilians in Gaza — while conveniently ignoring Hamas and its policy of using human shields — you might think these “progressives” would be rather more understanding, if not appreciative, of Israel’s ingenious (alleged) operation of precisely targeting Hezbollah operatives through, of all things, their pagers.

After all, this was a method of attack that put many hundreds of Hezbollah fighters out of commission and obliterated their communications network, but kept civilian casualties to an absolute minimum (if sadly not zero). It was also a reprisal against what is a well-known militant arm of the Islamic Republic of Iran that has been occupying Lebanon for decades, while having less than nothing to do with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but nevertheless has fired about 9,000 rockets at Israel over the past year, driving about 60,000 Israelis out of their homes in the north of Israel for months on end and murdering 12 Druze children for committing the heinous crime of playing a game of football on a Saturday morning.

Taking Israel’s side in this should be a no-brainer, but to these left-wing extremists a targeted retaliatory attack against known terrorists was a “war crime” and it was not this outside radical Islamist terror group that was guilty of “escalating” the war by indiscriminately firing thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians but Israel for daring to fight back. 

To state the obvious, part of this is just is plain anti-Semitism now dressed in the “acceptable” colours of anti-Zionism, and part of it is pure ignorance. But there’s something deeper going on here. The truth is, unlike those of us on the centre or centre left, it is no longer liberalism that guides these far-left “progressives”.

Progressivism used to work on the assumption that the enlightenment values (and a sprinkle of ethical monotheism) that underpinned Western liberal democracies were a fine foundation on which a progressively more accepting, fair and diverse world could be built. It was a value system in which people such as Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King could rightly been seen as its patron saints for their insistence on judging people according to their character, not whatever group identity they happened to be born into.

This new “progressive” left, on the other hand, is virulently anti-Western (with no real idea of a better alternative) and divides people according to immutable group identities based on gender, sexual orientation and race, into a pyramid of victims and victimisers; oppressors and the oppressed. In this paradigm, empowerment gives way to the glorification of victimhood and individual worth gives way to whichever group identity makes you the biggest victim. 

It is an insanely stupid argument to anyone with even a cursory understanding of knowledge and even the most basic appreciation for liberal democracy, but for the ANC and the regressive “progressive” left, it all makes perfect, terrifying sense.

• Preskovsky is a freelance journalist.