The war on Gaza has taken a devastating toll on the civilian population: about 27,500 people have been killed and well over 66,000 injured. Over 1.9 million have been displaced, representing more than 85 percent of the total population. Civilian infrastructure has been destroyed on an unimaginable scale: hospitals, schools, universities, churches, mosques and entire neighborhoods have been wiped out. And the people are being driven further and further south.
On January 11, South Africa’s genocide trial against the Israeli government began at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Pretoria wants to prove that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and push for an immediate end to the onslaught. Israeli member of parliament Ofer Cassif from the communist Hadash party is supporting South Africa in its lawsuit. He is now set to lose his mandate and be thrown out of the Knesset – some on the far-right even want to expel him from the country.
We talked to Ofer about South Africa’s case, the brutal war on Gaza, about fascist elements in the Israeli government, why an end to the war is not in Netanyahu’s interest and why, as a communist, you always have to be an internationalist too.
This interview was conducted by Jakob Reimann for Die Freiheitsliebe on January 23.
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