Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli raid in the Nur Shams camp on 17 December 2023. Picture: Zain Jaafar / AFP
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) says South Africans are breaking the law by joining the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) as the war in Gaza continues.
Israel has launched relentless bombardments and ground invasions of Gaza following Hamas’s 7 October attacks, which killed over 1 000 people, mostly civilians.
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The Israeli government’s actions has left much of the Gaza strip in ruins and has killed at least 18 800 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas authorities who rule the territory.
The ANC-led government has voiced its support for Palestine and called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for committing genocide.
In a statement on Monday, Dirco noted that it was “gravely concerned” about reports of South African citizens fighting alongside the IDF against Hamas in the war in Gaza and other occupied Palestinian territories.
The department pointed out that South Africa’s laws prohibited mercenary activity and regulates the enlistment of citizens or permanent residents in other armed forces.
“In terms of the Regulation of the Foreign Military Assistance Act, any person wishing to render foreign military assistance in Israel must first apply to the National Conventional Arms Control Committee [NCACC] who will make a recommendation to the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans that such an application be granted or refused,” Dirco said.
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The department warned that any person joining the IDF without the NCACC’s permission was breaking the law and can be prosecuted.
“Such action can potentially contribute to the violation of international law and the commission of further international crimes, thus, making them liable for prosecution in South Africa,” the department said.
“In addition, the South African Citizenship Act provides that any person who obtained South African citizenship by naturalisation in terms of that act shall cease to be a South African citizen if he or she engages under the flag of another country in a war that the republic does not support or agree with.
“It is in this context, that South African citizens should be made aware of the consequences of joining the IDF or any foreign armed forces involved in conflicts with a view to preventing inadvertent complicity in international crimes or violations of domestic law,” Dirco added.
Last month, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni confirmed that the State Security Agency (SSA) was aware of South Africans who were participating in the war.
Ntshavheni indicated the SSA was monitoring the war and was ready to provide to both the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the Department of Defence the identities of South Africans active in the fighting.
The minister said those who were participating “not only in the Israeli war, but in any other part of the world” would face prosecution.
She further stressed that South African government supported calls for a two-state agreement between Israel and Palestine.
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