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Jewish Leaders in South Africa Slam ANC Government’s Move to Prosecute Israel at International Court

Pro-Hamas demonstrators march in Cape Town, South Africa. Photo: Reuters/Nic Bothma

Jewish leaders in South Africa have angrily condemned the decision of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to refer Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in its war against the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza.

In an application filed with The Hague-based ICJ last Friday, South Africa claimed that Israel “has engaged in, is engaging in, and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

It further accused the Jewish state of acting “with the requisite specific intent … to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as part of the broader Palestinian national, racial, and ethnic group.”

Responding to the ICJ application, South Africa’s Chief Rabbi, Warren Goldstein, accused the ANC government of serving the Iranian regime’s interests.

Calling the genocide allegations “grotesquely false” in a post on X/Twitter, Goldstein accused the government of acting “as Iran’s ally and proxy in the Islamic state’s plans to destroy the Jewish state through its multifaceted strategy, a critical element of which is to undermine Israel’s legal and moral right to defend itself.”

Iran is the main international sponsor of Hamas, providing the Palestinian terrorist group with funds, arms, and training.

Goldstein added that the ANC supports “Iranian proxy Hamas in its war crimes of using its own civilian population as a human shield to cause maximum Palestinian casualties so as to delegitimize Israel’s just war of self-defense, thereby to neutralize its military superiority.”

Goldstein had particularly harsh words for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, whom he said had drawn the country closer to Iran and Hamas while in office.

“As far back as 2007, the SA government invited Hamas to the country on an official visit,” he noted. “And at the 2017 ANC conference which elected Ramaphosa as its president, a Hamas delegation was in attendance.”

He added that “of late, Ramaphosa led the charge to admit Iran into the Brics grouping” — a reference to the bloc led by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa that presents itself as a counter to the global influence of the US — and that “in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacres, the SA government dispatched its foreign minister to Tehran in a show of support of the Iranian administration.”

Strong criticism was also voiced by Rolene Marks, the spokesperson for the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF), who charged that the government was using the Palestinian issue to deflect from its woeful domestic record.

“This move seems designed to distract from the government’s own spectacular domestic failures,” Marks said in a statement that was shared with The Algemeiner. Citing statistics on crime that revealed an average of 75 murders and 120 rapes daily, Marks asserted that the ANC’s “focus on Israel is not only misplaced but negligent.”

South Africa temporarily withdrew its diplomats from Israel and shuttered its embassy in Tel Aviv shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom, saying that the Pretoria government was “extremely concerned at the continued killing of children and innocent civilians” in Gaza. Last month, two Hamas officials  — Bassem Naim, a member of the terrorist organization’s politburo, and Khaled Qaddoumi, its official representative in Iran — arrived in South Africa to attend a government-sponsored conference in solidarity with the Palestinians as well as ceremonies commemorating the 10th anniversary of the death of Nelson Mandela, the former South African president who led the ANC in its struggle against apartheid.

The post Jewish Leaders in South Africa Slam ANC Government’s Move to Prosecute Israel at International Court first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi lays a wreath as he visits the burial site of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

A member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran alongside a member of an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters and the Iraqi group said on Saturday.

The source identified the Hezbollah member as Abu Ali Khalil, who had served as a bodyguard for Hezbollah’s slain chief Hassan Nasrallah. The source said Khalil had been on a religious pilgrimage to Iraq when he met up with a member of the Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada group.

They traveled together to Tehran and were both killed in an Israeli strike there, along with Khalil’s son, the senior security source said. Hezbollah has not joined in Iran’s air strikes against Israel from Lebanon.

Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada published a statement confirming that both the head of its security unit and Khalil had been killed in an Israeli strike.

Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli aerial attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September.

Israel and Iran have been trading strikes for nine consecutive days since Israel launched attacks on Iran, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran has said it does not seek nuclear weapons.

The post Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip

Israeli soldiers operate during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS

i24 News – The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), in cooperation with the General Security Service (Shin Bet), announced on Friday the killing of Ibrahim Abu Shamala, a senior financial official in Hamas’ military wing.

The operation took place on June 17th in the central Gaza Strip.

Abu Shamala held several key positions, including financial officer for Hamas’ military wing and assistant to Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing until his elimination in March 2024.

He was responsible for managing all the financial resources of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, overseeing the planning and execution of the group’s war budget. This involved handling and smuggling millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip to fund Hamas’ military operations.

The post Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

i24 News – Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei named three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him should he be killed, the New York Times reported on Saturday citing unnamed Iranian officials. It is understood the Ayatollah fears he could be assassinated in the coming days.

Khamenei reportedly mostly speaks with his commanders through a trusted aide now, suspending electronic communications.

Khamenei has designated three senior religious figures as candidates to replace him as well as choosing successors in the military chain of command in the likely event that additional senior officials be eliminated.

Earlier on Saturday Israel confirmed the elimination of Saeed Izadi and Bhanam Shahriari.

Shahriari, head of Iran’s Quds Force Weapons Transfer Unit, responsible for arming Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, was killed in an Israeli airstrike over 1,000 km from Israel in western Iran.

The post Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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