WATCH: Thabo Mbeki calls for Israel’s war in Gaza to stop

Former president Thabo Mbeki has called for a ceasefire in Gaza and for warring parties to return to the negotiating table to find a sustainable solution.

The Thabo Mbeki Foundation shared the former president’s comments on the X social media platform on Monday.

Mbeki’s comments come almost week after South Africa made world headlines when it brought a case against  Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing it of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Watch former president Thabo Mbeki speaking about Israel’s war in Gaza

President Thabo Mbeki on the Israel-Palestine Conflict. pic.twitter.com/oIlJJo9GuI

— Thabo Mbeki Foundation (@TMFoundation_) January 15, 2024

Stop the war

Mbeki said the fighting must stop.

“We need to get back to the negotiations about the future. Starting with the Palestinians, everybody agreed we need a two-state solution. Now there is only one state, the other one does not exist.

“Indeed the one state that exists has been doing many things to make it impossible for the emergence of the second state. It’s a prescription for conflict, inevitably, there will always be a conflict in a situation like that,” said Mbeki.

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ICJ battle

Last week, during its oral arguments at the Peace Palace in The Hague, South Africa’s top legal minds argued that there is an urgent need for the world court to grant it provisional measures that will protect the lives of Palestinians.

The legal team argued that Israel’s retaliation on Gaza for Hamas’ 7 October attacks is tantamount to genocide.

During oral arguments on 11 January, South Africa’s top legal minds argued that “Israel’s attack on Gaza extends beyond the fight against Hamas but is “embedded in the fabric of Palestinian life in Gaza” and underscores the “very essence of our shared humanity”.

South Africa asked the court to issue several orders, including for Israel to “immediately suspend” its Gaza offensive; to stop forced displacement; to enable humanitarian access to thousands of displaced Palestinians; and to preserve evidence.

Ruling

It asked the ICJ to grant interim measures to stop Israel’s attacks in Gaza while it decides on the merits of the genocide accusations.

South Africa also argued that nothing can ever justify genocide, no matter how great the threat to Israeli security may be.

Israel told the ICJ not to grant South Africa the order it seeks because there is no genocide in Gaza. It said the claims are baseless, and that the country tailored the Gaza genocide story to pre-existing narratives.

The ICJ said an order would be made in a public sitting on a date that will be communicated in due course as hundreds of thousands of people continue to take to the streets across the world to protest against the war in Gaza.

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