The South West Africa National Union has criticised Israel and its partners’ actions in Gaza, and told Germany to stay away from genocidal actions, based on its own shameful history.
In January, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to take steps to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza after South Africa approached the court to stop the large-scale killing of civilians.
In a statement issued by Swanu, the party said genocide is a crime against humanity.
The death toll of Palestinians killed from Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip has risen to 27 478, while 66 835 have been wounded since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on 7 October 2023, the health ministry said on Monday. They added that with heavy Israeli bombardments and the lack of civil defence and ambulance crews, some victims are still under the rubble.
The party strongly supports the South African government’s stance against neo-colonialism.
Swanu commended South Africa for resolutely defending the rights of its people to their ancestral land, a position which has withstood legal scrutiny within the framework of international customary law.
The party furthermore encouraged the global recognition of genocide as a grave offence, underlining the importance of upholding human rights on an international scale.
“We all know that genocide does not happen spontaneously. It is a process, and we all know the early warning signs very well. We can take early action to mitigate those risk factors, which include gross human rights’ violations, structural discrimination against certain groups and inter-group tensions, and attacks against civilian populations. Many outbreaks of violence, conflict and atrocious crimes have roots in long-standing structural discrimination, deep economic inequities and social exclusion, and shrinking democratic and civil space,” said Swanu president Charles Katjivirue.
“As for us, serious violations of human rights perpetuated by known criminals such as colonists Israel, USA, France, Germany and others against vulnerable nation-communities, including the Palestinians and the Ovaherero-Nama must be globally denounced,” he charged.
He added that the actions of these colonists, specifically the Germans, “whose hands are full of blood, must be legally changed”, and their inaction in relation to disrespecting basic principles and guidelines on the right to a remedy and reparations for victims of gross violence of international human rights law, be condemned.
Katjivirue further stated that Germany has a cruel and gruesome history of human rights’ violations, and that it is disgusting for them to support the slaughter of innocent Palestinians in their own ancestral land, while they are guilty of the same in Namibia.
“It is an irresponsible act for Germany in having to stand before the whole world in support of Israel for its genocidal acts, while it has not, in the very least, attempted to genuinely redress its historical guilt on the 1904-1908 Ovaherero-Nama Genocide in Namibia,” he continued.