Much ink has been spilled about the legal definition of the crime of Genocide and if Israel has committed it in Gaza or if Hamas committed it on October 7th. In this pod, we are not examining those legal or moral issues. Adopting a non-legal, and non-humanitarian frame of mind, we are going to examine what are the underlying geopolitical, historical, and diplomatic reasons for South Africa bringing a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)?  

In this episode of Disorder, Jason Pack speaks to Sasha Polakow-Suransky -- deputy editor of Foreign Policy and author of ‘The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa’. The duo turn the telescope around and look squarely at South Africa, rather than looking at Israel or the Palestinians. They discuss the global implications of the ICJ case for South Africa and how it fits in the country’s decades long whiplash romances first with Israel then with the Palestinians, how South Africans see their role in the world, and whether South Africa’s actions and media campaign will further intrench ideas in the Global South that America’s stance on Israel’s actions in Gaza is grounded in hypocrisy. Then in our Ordering the Disorder segment, we debate is South Africa proposing an alternative order to the American-led international system or merely an alternative disorder? 

Twitter: @DisorderShow 

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Website: https://natoandtheglobalenduringdisorder.com/  

Producer: George McDonagh 

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn 

Show Notes Links 

Read: ‘What South Africa Really Won at the ICJ’ by Sasha here

Read: ‘The Year Geopolitical Competition Returned to Africa’ by Sasha here  

Listen to Today, Explained episode, ‘Israel at the International Court of Justice’ here  

Read the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide here

Get Sasha’s book The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa here

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