ISTANBUL

South Africa is still considering cutting diplomatic ties with Israel, President Cyril Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa, however, stressed South Africa’s support for the Palestinian cause was “irrevocable.”

“This matter (cutting ties with Israel) is being considered in a very active manner and in due course will be able to articulate precisely what the executive’s response is to the resolution that was taken by the National Assembly,” Ramaphosa told lawmakers on Thursday.

The South African president was asked about a non-binding resolution passed by the parliament last November urging the government to cut ties with Tel Aviv in the wake of the Israeli war on the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

Responding to a question by Economic Freedom Fighters party leader Julius Malema who referred to Brazil recalling its ambassador from Israel, Ramaphosa stressed his government was neither “reluctant” nor “coward.”

“This matter is being considered and we are considering broader issues around it,” Ramaphosa said about the resolution passed by the lawmakers, seeking the closure of the Israeli Embassy in Pretoria.

Addressing President Ramaphosa, Malema said South Africans “cannot share territory with murderers, rapists… (who) killed women and children and want to erode Palestinian nation.”

In March last year, the South African parliament also voted in favor of a motion that will downgrade its embassy in Israel into a liaison office, following endless abuses against Palestinians.

South Africa established diplomatic relations with Palestine in 1995 -- a year after the end of white-minority rule.

Ever since, Pretoria has remained highly critical of Israel’s continued mistreatment of the Palestinians, including its longstanding policy of building illegal Jewish settlements on Arab land in the occupied West Bank.

South Africa filed its case at the International Court of Justice based in The Hague in late 2023, accusing Israel, which has bombed Gaza since last October, of failing to uphold its commitments under the 1948 Genocide Convention.

Several countries including Türkiye, Nicaragua, Palestine, Spain, Mexico, Libya, and Colombia, have all joined the case which began public hearings in January.

The top court in May ordered Israel to halt its offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. It was the third time the 15-judge panel issued preliminary orders seeking to rein in the death toll and alleviate humanitarian suffering in the blockaded enclave, where the casualty count has crossed 42,400.