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Condemn Israel, Starve Miners: South African Hypocrisy Makes a Mockery of Human Rights
Anti-Israel protesters march through the streets of the township of Lenasia in Johannesburg, South Africa, Oct. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ihsaan Haffejee
According to the Talmud, Rabban Gamliel banned any student whose deeds were not in keeping with their values (Brachot 28a). This left him with an exceptionally small crop of students. One rabbi says that when his decree was lifted, 700 benches had to be added to accommodate the many more students who could then attend.
While hypocrisy is as old as time itself, sometimes it is so flagrant, glaring, and infuriating that we can’t help but take note.
South Africa has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel’s conduct in Gaza. It has led the charge against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Israel of genocide and demanding that the court intervene to help Gaza’s citizens.
In its original petition to the ICJ, submitted in December of 2023, South Africa declared the situation in Gaza to be “a moral failure causing intolerable suffering” (par. 44). It accused Israel of not only killing and injuring large numbers of Palestinians, but also depriving them of food and water, medical care, shelter, clothing, hygiene, and sanitation (par. 43). It accused Israeli leaders of making statements that demonstrated genocidal intent, such as then Defense Minister Yoav Gallant saying, “Israel would impose a complete siege on Gaza.” (par. 101). Although Gallant’s words were purposefully misinterpreted, South Afrtica tried to claim that Israel wanted to deliberately starve the people of Gaza.
You might be surprised, then, to find out how South Africa recently treated destitute migrants who unlawfully entered shuttered mines in an attempt to extract left-behind minerals they could sell to meet their basic needs.
The South African government was so enraged by this, that it forbid any food, water, or other humanitarian assistance from reaching them in an effort to starve them out.
One government minister explained that the miners are criminals, and therefore don’t deserve anything. At one mine, more than 100 people died of starvation and dehydration underground.
The South African Federation of Trade Unions said that at one site, 101 survivors emerged resembling “walking ghosts” after enduring weeks without supplies. It called the episode one of the most horrific displays of state willful negligence in recent history. It further condemned government officials’ statements that they would “smoke out” the miners, saying this amounted to state-sanctioned murder.
And let’s remember that these people went down the mineshafts illegally only in a desperate effort to survive. They had committed no violence against South Africa and posed no threat to the country.But just the fact that they were breaking laws out of economic necessity was enough for South Africa to treat them this way.
Sadly, this is typical of many human rights campaigns. Rights are only important when they can be used to condemn whatever group activists are interested in attacking. Worse or similar violations elsewhere mean nothing, and the people lobbing furious condemnation at others for violating rights would trample those same rights in an instant if they believed that was needed for their own well-being or security.
Even as the cease-fire brings us images of throngs of healthy, jubilant Gaza citizens parading through the streets declaring victory, making the genocide charge even more obviously false, it would be naïve to expect South Africa or its allies to change their minds. A country that starves common criminals at home while self-righteously accusing Israel of not allowing enough food to enter Gaza is not interested in human rights, but rather is pursuing its own political agenda. We can only hope that ostensibly legal forums such as the International Court of Justice will see through South Africa’s political opportunism and issuing a ruling based on law.
But most tragic is that by spuriously and hypocritically accusing Israel of genocide, South Africa has further exposed the political bias and double standards that unfortunately are so often at the root of human rights advocacy. This reduces human rights from lofty ideals for a better future, to a weapon that can be cynically exploited for political gain. What a shame.
Shlomo Levin is the author of the Human Rights Haggadah, and he writes about legal developments related to human rights issues of interest to the Jewish community. You can find him at https://hrhaggadah.com/.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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