GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General
01 October 2025
South Africa could add Donald Trump’s America to its case of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice after the US leader green-lighted Israel’s continued destruction of Palestine, should his plan to control Gaza meet with any resistance. But, because the US does not recognise the ICJ, adding it to the case would practically achieve little.
The Israeli Defense Force is dependent on the US for the military arsenal it has used to conduct genocide.
Although the ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, the fact that it has no jurisdiction over nations that don’t voluntarily subject themselves to its judgments significantly curtails the court’s functional power. The fact that it is unable to enforce judgments against states that do recognise it, such as Israel, adds to its systemic weaknesses.
The ICJ’s frailties exacerbate the frailties of its mother body, the UN, whose antiquated structure affording veto rights to five nations has been consistently used by the US to block resolutions calling for the Gaza genocide to stop.
The so-called “peace plan” that Trump announced yesterday includes roles for himself and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair on a “Board of Peace” supervising a transitional governance structure of technocrats and unnamed apolitical Palestinians. The plan seeks to formally take control of Palestine from Palestinian people with no guarantees of what shape or form the territory will take if and when control is ever returned to Palestinians.
It is uncertain if any Palestinians have been consulted on the plan, which came with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ringing endorsement. Trump told Netanyahu that if the plan was not accepted, and the remaining hostages held by Hamas were not immediately released, Netanyahu had permission to “finish the job”.
The job he speaks of is the very one that South Africa has asked the ICJ to stop.
Trump’s nomination of Blair adds insult to injury. Blair is equally or less qualified than Trump to serve a proposed peace structure, having co-authored, on a false pretext, the invasion of Iraq in 2003 that led to approximately 200,000 deaths, 170,000 of whom were civilians. According to Blair, Iraq had to be stopped from using weapons of mass destruction. It was later proven such weapons did not exist.
The Trump plan starkly contradicts the posture of 157 of the world’s nations, including many close US allies, who recognised the State of Palestine at the UN last week.
The plan seeks to formally take control of Palestine from Palestinian people with no guarantees of what shape or form the territory will take if and when control is ever returned to Palestinians.
When South Africa had the courage to take Israel to the ICJ to stop the genocide, in 2023, it did so as something of an outlier. Few other countries supported us then, but many have since added their support.
Now, difficult as it is economically, South Africa must summon the courage to call the US out, be it through returning to the ICJ or issuing a firm diplomatic statement. A plan to put wolves in charge of the chicken-house, at gunpoint, is not a peace plan. It is an unbridled assault on human rights and justice.