South Africa says Palestinians are undergoing 'more extreme form of apartheid'

South Africa said on Tuesday that Israel's policies towards the Palestinians were “a more extreme form of apartheid”, citing its fraught history of racial discrimination to increase global pressure on Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The court, the United Nations' highest judicial body, will hear six days of arguments over Israel's “occupation, settlement and annexation” of Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The UN General Assembly asked the court more than a year ago to review the legality of Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories, before Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

The proceedings, which began on Monday, would see more than 50 countries appear before the 15 judges over the next week, a level of participation never before seen at the court. It is expected that the court will issue a non-binding opinion. Israel has said it will not participate in the oral arguments because it does not recognize the court's jurisdiction in the case.

South Africa's ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusi Madonsela, addressed the judges on Tuesday morning, weeks after his country argued in court that Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. In that case, the court ordered Israel, which has denied the allegations, to take action to prevent genocide in Gaza, but has not yet decided whether genocide occurred.

Mr Madonsela recalled South Africa's “painful experience” of decades of apartheid and discrimination and drew parallels with what he called Israel's colonization of the Palestinian territories it seized in 1967. He referred to the separate legal systems, land zoning rules, roads and housing rights for Palestinians. He said Israel has established a “two-tiered system of laws, regulations and services” that benefits Jewish settlers while “denying the rights of Palestinians.”

South Africans are seeing “an even more extreme form of the apartheid that has been institutionalized in my country against black people,” Mr Madonsela said. He said South Africa has a special obligation to denounce apartheid practices wherever they occur. He also called on Israel to dismantle the separation wall between Israel and the West Bank, which the court ordered removed in 2004 and which still stands.

The United States does planned to present arguments on Wednesday.