In December 2023, South Africa brought allegations of genocide against Israel and its military's actions before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial body of the United Nations. They argued that Israel's military actions constitute genocide due to the intent "to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as part of the broader Palestinian national, racial, and ethnic group." Since then, South Africa has submitted 3 additional requests to block Israel's campaigns. In January 2024, the ICJ concluded it's plausible Israel's actions amounted to genocide, however, the case is still on-going, likely for many more years. However, the update this week is that President Trump has signed an executive order to punish South Africa for bringing these claims to the ICJ.
The executive order, released on Feb 7, 2025, calls for addressing "the Egregious Actions of The Republic of South Africa". It starts with discussing South Africa's Expropriation Act 13 of 2024 that is claimed to allow the government to seize white landowners land. However, it is plainly obvious the real intent of the executive order, because it then states "South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice".
It's important to note that this executive order was released just 3 days after Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Feb 4, 2025. And, it seems Netanyahu has not forgotten about South Africa and made it one of his major discussion topics with Trump while visiting abroad to the USA. This could be because he and other Israeli military members are facing increasing pressure for their arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
So what does this executive order do to punish South Africa?
South Africa receives approximately $1 billion a year for development assistance from various international donors. The USA alone has provided more than $545 million, in 2023, to support health initiatives, mostly for fighting HIV/AIDS. It's hard to say if this aid would have been cut off regardless due to the on-going efforts by Trump and Elon musk to dismantle USAID, which was the largest agency, contributing $238 MM, to South Africa from the US.
Additionally, this executive order states that it will support resettling "refugees" affected by the new South African law into the USA, although, there are no official numbers or info on exactly who and how many people meet this criteria.
While these actions probably won't hurt South Africa significantly in the short term, because it's mainly focused on aid for health initiatives, it could have a long lasting impact if the aid is not reinstated. Additionally, the aid to South Africa is mainly to fight HIV/AIDS, which is given primarily to help contain the virus from spreading out of control globally. Ironically, revoking this aid may increase the risk to Americans and its allies more than it does to benefit them.
However, while these may seem minor, an ill-thought slap on the wrist, make no mistake this executive order has serious implications. This executive order is meant to send a message to world leaders, stop pressuring Israel and accept their actions. It will have a chilling-effect as other world leaders may choose to not enforce the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and others in the Israeli military. Additionally, the case in the ICJ is still on-going! There are 17 judges from different countries and many fear that these judges will not hold Israel accountable for fear of retaliation to their nations.
South Africa knew that retaliation was possible and likely due to the influence Israel has on US leaders. But they bravely stood up against oppression and only time will tell if the rest of the world will share their bravery or if the actions of Trump and Netanyahu can show the world's cowardness.
Lastly...
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