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Ronald Lamola. File picture: FREDDY MAVUNDA.
Ronald Lamola. File picture: FREDDY MAVUNDA.

Nicholas Woode-Smith calls on foreign minister Ronald Lamola to usher in a new era of SA diplomacy (“Lamola has an opportunity to set foreign policy right”, July 24). He specifically draws attention to engagement with Israel in light of Hamas’ October 7 2023 attacks, and SA’s subsequent trips to The Hague.

Woode-Smith’s call is a timely one given the International Court of Justice’s July 19 advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The court affirmed that Israel has — since 1967 — illegally occupied and in effect annexed Palestinian territory.

Importantly, the court stressed that member states of the UN have a duty (the court’s word) not to recognise the illegally occupied territory as Israeli, as well as a duty to desist from supporting Israel’s ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine.

Lamola’s challenge will be to balance SA’s long-term preference for engagement with the court-sanctioned imperative to clamp down on enabling of the occupation. This will require increased targeted sanctions and punitive action, not only against Israel but also accountable non-state entities.

The court’s direction will sit well with a government that has never bought into the twin conceits that Israel has sovereignty over all the territory it controls, and that Palestinian history began last October.

In his previous position as justice minister, our new international relations & co-operation minister led SA’s globally lauded Genocide Convention dispute submission. The rigour of SA’s papers in those proceedings shows that Lamola is up to the task of implementing SA’s derecognition of the Israeli occupation.

Neil Horne
Gardens

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