The legal victory by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice may well translate into a gain for the ANC at this year’s elections. It could allow the governing party to unify itself and to remind voters of the fight against apartheid. The court’s ruling is proof that the ANC is on the right side of history, however inconvenient this may be for opposition parties. Many in South Africa have strong feelings about the situation in Gaza and the Middle East.
This is partly because our diverse country is home to people who have strong ethnic, religious and family ties to Palestine and also people who have similar ties to Israel. In many an office, there will be people on opposing WhatsApp groups — people whose loved ones are among the thousands dead and two million trapped in Gaza, and those whose loved ones were victims of the Hamas attack or live in fear of Hezbollah rockets (with similar fears afflicting people in southern Lebanon — from Israeli rockets