The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) welcomes the report of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry confirming that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. This report affirms what Palestinians, human rights defenders, and progressive forces have been declaring for months: that Israel’s deliberate mass killings, starvation, displacement, and destruction of Gaza amount to genocide under international law.
South Africa Vindicated at the ICJ
The UN’s findings vindicate the South African government for taking Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Despite Western pressure and smear campaigns, South Africa has stood on the side of international law and humanity. The report strengthens the case before the ICJ and deepens the legal and moral obligation of all states to act to prevent and punish genocide.
What the UN Report Confirms
The Commission’s findings are damning:
• Israel has committed multiple acts prohibited by the Genocide Convention: mass killings, serious harm, destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure, and conditions designed to destroy the Palestinian people in whole or in part.
• Israel’s political and military leaders have expressed genocidal intent in word and deed.
• The humanitarian catastrophe is deliberate policy — starvation, mass displacement, and annihilation of civilian life.
Hypocrisy and Double-Speak
SAFTU reiterates its condemnation of South Africa and BRICS governments for their double-speak. While loudly denouncing genocide in words, they have simultaneously expanded trade with Israel:
• South Africa: Coal shipments to Israel grew by 17% in early 2025 compared to 2024, with the total value of coal and other exports rising by 22.9% despite South Africa leading the genocide case at the ICJ.
• China: Exports to Israel rose to US$1.5 billion in June 2025, up from US$1.32 billion the year before, with Israel’s annual trade deficit with China exceeding US$10 billion.
• India: Bilateral trade reached nearly US$4 billion in 2024, and India signed a new investment treaty in 2025 to deepen ties further.
This duplicity undermines the moral clarity of opposing genocide and signals complicity in the very crimes BRICS leaders claim to oppose.
We also condemn corporations such as Genco and African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) for fueling genocide through continued business relations and profiteering. These companies have blood on their hands — enriching themselves while Palestinian lives are destroyed.
Condemnation of US and European Complicity
SAFTU strongly condemns the continued support of the United States government, which provides weapons, funding, and political cover for Israel’s genocide. It is not surprising that the most recent US high-level visit to Israel was immediately followed by intensified bombing and the flattening of entire Palestinian neighbourhoods.
The USA, together with several European countries, supports this genocide in line with their own histories of colonialism and imperialism. Their complicity in making Gaza uninhabitable mirrors the same logic of conquest, dispossession, and racial domination that they imposed on the global South for centuries.
SAFTU’s Longstanding Demands
The UN report gives new urgency to SAFTU’s calls:
1. Workers’ Boycott – South African and global workers must refuse to handle Israeli goods in ports, airports, warehouses and retail.
2. Corporate Accountability – We demand divestment from and sanctions against Genco, ARM and all companies trading with or profiting from Israel’s crimes.
3. Stop Arms Trade – End all arms sales or purchases to and from Israel.
4. Diplomatic Isolation – Expel Israel from sporting, cultural, and diplomatic platforms.
5. Humanitarian Solidarity – Ensure unrestricted humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Intensify Global Protests
In the face of Israel’s escalating onslaught — the flattening of Gaza’s towns, the starvation of its children, the mass displacement of its people — SAFTU calls for intensified global protests.
• Workers, students, and communities everywhere must take to the streets to demand an end to genocide.
• Unions worldwide must escalate boycott actions, including refusing to handle goods, arms, or services linked to Israel.
• Progressive governments must move beyond rhetoric and take binding, concrete action to isolate Israel and end the slaughter.
No Impunity, No Double Standards
SAFTU rejects the hypocrisy of the global North, which excuses genocide when Palestinians are the victims. We also reject South Africa and BRICS’ own contradictions: it is not enough to lead in court but continue trade in coal, minerals, technology and goods that sustain genocide. Justice cannot be spoken with one mouth and undermined with the other hand.
The UN report confirms what humanity already knows: Israel is committing genocide. But genocide is not only the act of the perpetrator — it is enabled by the complicity of governments and corporations that trade, invest and profit while Gaza bleeds.
SAFTU calls on workers and peoples of the world to rise in united, intensified protest to end genocide. The blood of Gaza cries out, and history will judge us not only by our words but by whether we acted.
