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Israel-Palestine War

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gaza peace israel hostages

Gaza peace – A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step

On an emotional day, the remaining live Israeli hostages are home, some 2000 Palestinians are being released from prisons, and an extraordinary gathering of more than 20 global leaders has endorsed an agreement to end the fighting in Gaza. But much more remains to be done.

J Brooks Spector 13 October 2025

Judge Navi Pillay on Gaza, power and the future of international justice

In this episode of The Readiness Report with Redi Tlhabi, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay reflects on a lifetime spent pursuing justice, from defending anti-apartheid activists in South Africa to presiding over landmark international trials. As lead investigator of the recent UN report on Gaza, Judge Pillay discusses why she believes accountability still matters, even in the face of power, politics, and impunity. A conversation on the law and the weight of truth.

Redi Tlhabi 13 October 2025
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A Daily Maverick Roll of Honour of journalists killed while covering the Israel-Gaza war

Daily Maverick condemns the killings of scores of journalists since 7 October in the Israel-Gaza war and the targeting of the eyes of war, regarded as requiring special protection under the Geneva Conventions.

WATCH

Fact-Check: Did Iran fund South Africa’s approach to the ICJ over Israel?

The allegation is essentially as follows: the ANC, which for years has been teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, announced in early January that it had managed to stabilise its finances. It didn’t really give any specifics on how this had been accomplished. In the same week, South Africa approached the International Court of Justice in the Hague to ask that Israel’s actions in Gaza be classified as genocide. To some people, the timing of these two events is suspicious.

By Rebecca Davis

How South Africa seeks an order to stop the carnage in Gaza and prevent a genocide

South Africa says a court preventive order will force the UN General Assembly and the Security Council to stop the sale of arms to Israel.

By Ferial Haffajee

ICJ case

Playlist

3 Videos

Opinionista

Israel-Palestine Conflict: Learning from Mandela’s inclusion and Sinwar’s vengeance
The Hamas leader, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is ‘a dead man walking’. Sinwar was little known beyond the Middle East before the 7 October 2023 terror attack that he reputedly planned and directed, surprising Israeli intelligence and breaching presumably impregnable defences.
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Middle East crisis ceasefire vital — ‘you only make peace by talking to your enemies’
It is Abba Eban, the great Israeli Foreign Minister who reminds us that, ‘you only make peace by talking to your enemies’ while an African adage reiterates that ‘man’s greatest accomplishment is through talking and man’s greatest failure is through not talking’.
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My personal struggle in a time of global pain
This is perhaps the most overdue text I have ever written. It may anger many people affected by the Middle East conflict. Still, it needs to be said.
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Love and solidarity in time of the Israel-Palestine war
In our most desperate times, love and solidarity can go far in reminding us of our own humanity and seeing the humanity in others. Watching how an entire population has been stripped of theirs is difficult, there is no denying that. But watching is still better than living it. So, while we watch, as we bear witness, we cannot be a silent audience.
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We may not like David Teeger’s support of the Israeli army, but we should not persecute him for expressing this
The Proteas under-19 cricket captain’s remarks in support of the Israeli army did not celebrate genocide or express a bloodthirsty desire for revenge. He has the right to say what he wants to say.
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Biblical ‘eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth’ not an unlimited charter for vengeance
In the primal society in which it was forged, the lex talionis was a restraining principle, designed to stop warring tribes from engaging in endless vendettas — you may ONLY take a tooth for a tooth. The punishment may fit the crime but not grossly exceed it in scale or brutality.
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Israel and Gaza — what to do with the interminable pain in my heart
As a therapist, I am awed and dismayed by the human capacity to re-enact trauma — to visit on others the suffering we have endured. The Boers recreated for black people the same kinds of humiliation and dispossession to which the English subjected them during the Anglo-Boer wars.
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The destruction of cultural heritage as a weapon of war and genocide
The destruction of tangible cultural heritage can, and often does, include destruction of ritual practice, beliefs and symbolism. These forms of destruction, while not necessarily involving the physical death of individuals, can herald the psychosocial and cultural ‘death’ of communities.
Read more
It’s the dawning of the age of disunion as global history closes the chapter of a world in union
South Africa’s extraordinary victory in the Rugby World Cup last month inevitably evoked nostalgia for the Springboks’ first win in the tournament, in 1995, and the inimitable voice of PJ Powers singing, ‘The World In Union’.
Read more
Israel’s wilful deprivation of food in Gaza — a violation of international law
As South African Jews, our relationship to apartheid, dispossession and settler-colonial, militarised, genocidal occupation is a long one. Many of us are in South Africa because our ancestors and families fled the pogroms of Eastern Europe, or the Holocaust. We refuse to allow the memory of our ancestors, our history, identities and grief to be weaponised for interlinked fascist, genocidal, apartheid projects in Palestine or anywhere.
Read more
Israel’s systematic onslaught against the hospitals of Gaza is a war crime
The world cannot remain silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair. Decisive international action is needed now to stop this manic behaviour being carried out by Israel and to halt the mass-scale humanitarian crisis that we are witnessing live.
Read more
How to respond to the Middle East crisis — stop shouting and listen
Where to turn? What to do? How can I respond to these calls for revenge, these cries for justice? What can I do to change this situation, given that more powerful leaders have consistently failed to do so?
Read more
What is happening in Israel and Gaza is triggering for all of us, including this South African mom
I am writing this not as a history lesson, nor as an attempt at fact-checking. This is about how I feel as a South African mother, wife, daughter, cousin, sister and friend, watching the mass killing of other mothers, wives, daughters, cousins and sisters. I’m not alone in feeling totally gutted by the unfolding cruelty that has been unleashed. My children are hurting too.
Read more
I’m crying out for justice, peace and reconciliation for ALL people of the Holy Land
Just as we condemn Hamas rocket attacks on Israel, and the horrific 7 October attacks on civilians – reminiscent of the pogroms carried out against Jews in the past – so too we condemn the Israeli attacks on Gaza, which have led to mass civilian casualties
Read more
Brutal assault on Gaza has profound implications for how the world views Israel
Encapsulating the complexities facing the West is the one question which has been asked repeatedly of Western leaders over the past two weeks: Why has the plight of Palestinian civilians not been given the same attention as that of the Ukrainians?
Read more
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The destruction of cultural heritage as a weapon of war and genocide
The destruction of tangible cultural heritage can, and often does, include destruction of ritual practice, beliefs and symbolism. These forms of destruction, while not necessarily involving the physical death of individuals, can herald the psychosocial and cultural ‘death’ of communities.
read more
It’s the dawning of the age of disunion as global history closes the chapter of a world in union
South Africa’s extraordinary victory in the Rugby World Cup last month inevitably evoked nostalgia for the Springboks’ first win in the tournament, in 1995, and the inimitable voice of PJ Powers singing, ‘The World In Union’.
read more
Israel’s wilful deprivation of food in Gaza — a violation of international law
As South African Jews, our relationship to apartheid, dispossession and settler-colonial, militarised, genocidal occupation is a long one. Many of us are in South Africa because our ancestors and families fled the pogroms of Eastern Europe, or the Holocaust. We refuse to allow the memory of our ancestors, our history, identities and grief to be weaponised for interlinked fascist, genocidal, apartheid projects in Palestine or anywhere.
read more
Israel’s systematic onslaught against the hospitals of Gaza is a war crime
The world cannot remain silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair. Decisive international action is needed now to stop this manic behaviour being carried out by Israel and to halt the mass-scale humanitarian crisis that we are witnessing live.
read more
How to respond to the Middle East crisis — stop shouting and listen
Where to turn? What to do? How can I respond to these calls for revenge, these cries for justice? What can I do to change this situation, given that more powerful leaders have consistently failed to do so?
read more
What is happening in Israel and Gaza is triggering for all of us, including this South African mom
I am writing this not as a history lesson, nor as an attempt at fact-checking. This is about how I feel as a South African mother, wife, daughter, cousin, sister and friend, watching the mass killing of other mothers, wives, daughters, cousins and sisters. I’m not alone in feeling totally gutted by the unfolding cruelty that has been unleashed. My children are hurting too.
read more
I’m crying out for justice, peace and reconciliation for ALL people of the Holy Land
Just as we condemn Hamas rocket attacks on Israel, and the horrific 7 October attacks on civilians – reminiscent of the pogroms carried out against Jews in the past – so too we condemn the Israeli attacks on Gaza, which have led to mass civilian casualties
read more
Brutal assault on Gaza has profound implications for how the world views Israel
Encapsulating the complexities facing the West is the one question which has been asked repeatedly of Western leaders over the past two weeks: Why has the plight of Palestinian civilians not been given the same attention as that of the Ukrainians?
read more
Previous slide
Next slide

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