US embassy official in SA reiterates rejection of Gaza ceasefire

Amid South Africa’s case at The Hague accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, the US government has reiterated its opposition to a ceasefire in the war-torn area. 

David Feldmann, the spokesperson for the US’s South African embassy, said on Thursday his government believed a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas — the political and military group based in the Gaza Strip, which is one of three Palestinian territories — would allow Hamas to “regroup and rearm”. 

Battles between Israel and Palestine flared up again after Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel, which left about 1 200 dead, mostly civilians. Hamas also kidnapped some 240 people. 

In retaliation, Israel has entered its fourth month of concerted bombing attacks on the Gaza Strip, destroying everything from hospitals, schools, religious facilities and refugee camps, and killing more than 23 000 people — mostly women and children — in what the South African government called genocidal intent. 

Feldmann further echoed the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s assertion made earlier in the week that South Africa’s case against Israel before the International Court of Justice in The Hague was “meritless and galling”. 

But Feldmann stressed South Africa’s sovereign right, saying the country had a “strong relationship” with the US “based on the priorities of the American people and the South African people”. 

“South Africa is a sovereign country that has the right to make its own decisions about how to engage with Israel and the international community.  We have an open and candid dialogue with South African officials on all manner of bilateral and global issues, including on issues where we have different perspectives,” he said.  

“We do not publicly discuss the content of our private bilateral conversations. We will let South African officials speak to positions of the South African government.”

Feldmann added that the US embassy was “concerned by the increase in anti-Semitic rhetoric in South Africa, home to the largest Jewish community on the African continent”.  

“We appreciate the efforts by some senior government, political and civil society leaders to counter anti-Semitic rhetoric and to ensure that the passionate debate about events in the Middle East is not used as a pretext or opportunity to amplify  antisemitism or Islamophobia,” he said. 

“Jewish people in South Africa and around the world should not be held responsible for the words and actions of the Israeli or any other government.”