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You too are conspiring towards genocide: the ANC's historical framing of Israel/Palestine through the lens of genocide

delete2025-12-01
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PRE
AI
A
Asher Lubotzky *
DOI:10.1080/13531042.2025.2603074delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
This article seeks to position South Africa's genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) within the African National Congress' (ANC) historical framing of apartheid and genocide. The ANC's long-standing view that apartheid is inherently genocidal informs its alignment with Palestinian claims of Israeli genocide. The article traces this intellectual history through three developments: the ANC's linkage of apartheid and genocide, its shift from viewing Israel as a victim of genocide to an ally of apartheid, and its decades-long endorsement of Palestinian assertions of genocide, especially since the 1982 Lebanon War. These ideas are part of a broader trend since the 1960s to challenge what many actors in the Global South have seen as an overly narrow definition of genocide. While the South African government may also have other motives in pursuing the case at the ICJ, the ANC's historical engagement with the term genocide reveals that its actions on the international stage reflect a coherent ideological trajectory - one that interprets the Israeli - Palestinian conflict through the lens of its own anti-apartheid experience and seeks to actively shape global norms.
Keywords:
Genocide
South Africa
African National Congress (ANC)
apartheid
October 7
Israel-Hamas War

Journal

J
Journal of Israeli History
IF:
0.3
Papers:
12
Citations:
0

Organization

U
university of houston system
Scholars:
1.4W
Papers: 1.4W
Citations: 16
Cited Papers

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