The Government Condemns South Africa’s Legal Attack on Israel

MTI-Hungary Today 2024.01.10.

Hungary condemns the legal attack launched against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Tuesday on his social media page.

The Minister wrote on Facebook that in accordance with the Israeli government’s coalition agreement, a new Israeli Foreign Minister took office at the beginning of the year. He said: “Today, I congratulated him by phone on his assumption of office and we reviewed the situation in the Middle East. I told my new colleague that Hungary condemns the legal challenge against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague:

to accuse a country of genocide that has suffered a terrorist attack, is obviously nonsense. Hungary’s position remains unchanged, we stand by Israel’s right to self-defense.”

“We believe that it is in the interest of the whole world that the current counter-terrorism operations are a success, so that such brutal terrorist attacks never happen again anywhere in the world,” Szijjártó stressed.

“Of course we also spoke about the innocent people taken hostage, we agreed that Hamas must release all hostages as soon as possible. Together we will do our utmost to ensure that the dual Israeli-Hungarian citizen still in custody can regain his freedom as soon as possible. We have agreed to continue our consultations next week in a face-to-face meeting in Jerusalem,” he added.

Fact

In late December, South Africa requested an urgent order from the International Court of Justice to declare that Israel had violated its obligations under the Genocide Convention by its military action against the Palestinian extremist organization Hamas in Gaza. “South Africa is gravely concerned about the plight of civilians in Gaza affected by the Israeli attacks, who are subjected to indiscriminate violence. There are ongoing reports of human rights and war crimes being committed in the region,” said a press release from South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation.

They called on the court to issue an interim order for Israel to suspend military operations in Gaza. As a state party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, South Africa has a treaty obligation to prevent genocide, the department concluded.

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Via MTI, Featured image: Pixabay