ROSHAN DADOO

On 9^th March Israel declared it was cutting electricity supplies to Gaza. This is yet another breach of the ceasefire agreement that has seen at least 116 Palestinians killed and 490 wounded since it came into effect on 19 January. Power has been cut to the only remaining water desalination plant supplying water to Palestinians facing ongoing genocide in Gaza.

South Africa continues to export coal to the Israel Electric Corporation, almost entirely owned by the State of Israel, and the main generator, supplier and distributer of electricity throughout occupied Palestine. On 11 February 2025 the ship ‘Cape Friendship’ arrived in Israel’s Hadera port carrying around 700,000 tonnes of South African coal from Richards Bay. 

Coal-fired power plants at Ashdod and Hedera ports in 2023 provided 17.5% of power to a grid that supplies the Israel Occupation Forces, weapons and ammunition manufacture, as well as to the illegal West Bank settlements. ‘Settlement outposts’, set up by illegal settlers stealing Palestinian land and putting up temporary structures are now being connected to the Israel national electricity grid even before they are authorised by the state. Meanwhile Israel sells electricity to the Palestinian Authority at a higher tariff.

It is unconscionable that South Africa continues to fuel the genocide and illegal occupation, sustaining the system of apartheid and Israel’s settler-colonial regime. 

It was South Africa’s case against Israel under the Genocide Convention at the International Criminal Court (ICJ) that brought about the very legal obligations imposed on state parties and on corporations to prevent and end complicity in the genocide. 

In July 2024, the same apex court ordered states to “aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” In the United Nations General Assembly on September 18 2024, a super-majority vote (124 in favour including South Africa, 14 against, and 43 abstentions) confirmed that states have an obligation to “prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

On 31 January 2025 South Africa was at the forefront of the inauguration of the Hague Group of states along with Bolivia, Republic of Colombia, Republic of Cuba, Republic of Honduras, Malaysia, Republic of Namibia and the Republic of Senegal. Their statement pledged to: “prevent the docking in any port… where there is a clear risk of the vessel being used to carry military fuel and weaponry to Israel.”  This is a significant move on the part of global south countries, committing to concrete actions, including ending coal exports that fuel Israel’s military industrial complex. It is vital that countries stand together in solidarity with the Palestinian people against US imperialism and withstand the bullying threats of Donald Trump’s racist regime. 

South Africans therefore have a specific responsibility to ensure our government and mining companies like Glencore and African Rainbow Minerals  stop trading with Israel. We can only do this by uniting our struggles. As an example, Israel is not only committing genocide in Palestine but also what Palestinians have called ‘ecocide’. The first 120 days of the genocide produced more CO2 than the annual emissions of 26 countries and territories. The CO2 emissions that will be produced during the rebuilding of Gaza’s devastated urban landscape will produce a figure higher than that of over 130 countries.

Palestinians recognise that their struggle is inextricably linked with climate justice, exploitation and other forms of oppression across the world.

They call for broad intersectional coalitions as a necessity for Palestinian solidarity, particularly in these times of rising fascism, white supremacy, and systemic racism.

The South African BDS Coalition along with the global BDS Movement, the energy embargo campaign and the Resist Glencore Network bring together Palestine solidarity groups, environmental justice activists, indigenous people’s rights, mining affected communities, trade unions and all those that are fighting against the rapacious hand of late neo-liberal racial capital and planetary destruction. Join us in taking collective action to stop South African coal fueling the genocide, for an energy embargo, trade and economic sanctions towards dismantling Israel’s system of apartheid and its settler colonial regime.

Resist. Rise. Decolonize. Palestine Frees Us All!