Illustrative image: Dr Naledi Pandor and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: Deaan Vivier | EPA-EFE/ Menahem Kahana | Felix Dlangamandla) 
South Africa has welcomed the adoption by the UN Security Council of a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip after the US withheld its veto to enable Resolution 2728 (2024) to pass.
However, large doubts immediately arose about whether Israel would implement a ceasefire and the Israeli government criticised the US for failing to block the resolution. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called off a planned visit to Washington by his officials for high-level talks with the US on Israel’s planned attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which the US has opposed.
South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor welcomed the UN decision, but said it was now the responsibility of the Security Council to ensure that there was compliance with the resolution, which is binding on the parties.
“The ball is now in the court of the Security Council as they will be tested as to their adherence to the resolution,” she told the Department of International Relations and Cooperation’s (Dirco’s) Ubuntu Radio.
Pandor nonetheless said, “South Africa is pleased that the Security Council has, at long last, demanded an immediate and lasting ceasefire for the month of Ramadan and the resolution also proposed that this ceasefire should lead to a lasting sustainable ceasefire.”
She said SA had called for a ceasefire “for many, many weeks”.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Middle East crisis
Dirco said that South Africa remained concerned that in the more than five months since the conflict began, thousands had lost their lives, including more than 13,000 children.
“As Resolution 2728 notes, there is an ‘urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance to and reinforce the protection of civilians in the entire Gaza Strip,’ ” Dirco added.
“It is therefore vital that the parties comply with the Security Council’s ‘demand for the lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale, in line with international humanitarian law, as well as Resolution 2712 (2023) and 2720 (2023)’ ”.
The Security Council’s decision to call for a ceasefire ended a five-month stalemate in which the US had vetoed three previous attempts at ceasefire resolutions, insisting on Israel’s right to pursue the fight against Hamas, which it has vowed to destroy.
More than 32,000 Gazans have been killed in Israel’s assault, which was launched following Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October that killed almost 1,200 people and led to the taking of around 250 hostages.
Monday’s resolution passed with 14 votes in favour, none against and one abstention, from the US. The chamber erupted in applause when the vote was concluded.
Hostage negotiations
Netanyahu’s office slammed the US abstention as a retreat from the consistent US position since the start of the war and said it would harm Israel’s war effort as well as its attempts to free the remaining hostages.
But the US State Department said its abstention “reaffirms the US position that a ceasefire of any duration comes as part of an agreement to release hostages in Gaza”.
It added that the resolution recognised “the painstaking, non-stop negotiations” being conducted by Egypt, Israel, Qatar and the US to free the hostages in the context of a ceasefire.
The US said it did not vote for the resolution because it failed to condemn Hamas for its 7 October attack. It reiterated the need to accelerate and sustain the provision of humanitarian assistance for Gaza through all available routes, by land, sea and air.
Pandor was in the US to “affirm the very positive relationship between South Africa and the United States of America, to continue to advocate for a greater economic partnership … as well as the continued participation of South Africa in the African Growth and Opportunity Act which allows for preferential trade [with the US] for a number of African countries including South Africa”.
She told Ubuntu Radio that South Africa was concerned about resolutions and proposed legislation now before the House of Representatives. She was referring in particular to a Bill approved by the House’s Foreign Affairs Committee last week that calls on the administration to conduct a comprehensive review of US relations with SA including SA’s continued eligibility to enjoy benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).
Read more in Daily Maverick: Bill that calls for full review of US relations with SA crosses first hurdle in US Congress
The bipartisan Bill was prompted by criticism from several members of Congress of SA’s position on Russia’s war against Ukraine as well as Pretoria’s stance on Israel’s war against Hamas. SA’s submission of genocide charges against Israel to the International Court of Justice over its assault on Gaza has particularly angered conservatives in Congress.
Pandor told the radio station that part of her mission in the US was to explain to officials and members of Congress SA’s position on “freedom for the people of Palestine. But also to indicate that we believe the human rights position adopted by South Africa is well in line with the policy position of the United States of America. And that it is natural for South Africa as a post-apartheid democracy to advocate for human rights, for justice and for freedom for the people of Palestine.”
Pandor said that she hoped to persuade the US officials and Congress members she met “to rethink any intention to execute punitive measures of any kind towards our country”. DM