The ghost of apartheid has come back to haunt Israel and give hope to Palestinians | Tony Karon

South Africa's lawsuit alleging genocide is a fitting call for the right of an oppressed people to self-determination

A spectre has long haunted Israel: the spectre of South Africa. Specifically, Israeli leaders have feared that a world recognising their oppression of Palestinians as an apartheid system might be moved to impose on Israel the same international isolation that helped end South Africa's system of white minority rule. However, few Israeli leaders would have expected that impetus to come in the form of a South African lawsuit in The Hague alleging genocide.

Recent UN general assembly votes show that most of the international community is appalled by Israel's brutalisation of Gaza, yet appears unable to act. It's as if Israel is shielded by an unspoken but commonly accepted US prerogative to set the terms of any international interventions in the Middle East. Indeed, what makes the South African action all the more remarkable is the reality that when you indict Israel for genocide, you're effectively accusing its armourer and diplomatic enabler - the US - of being an accomplice to the crime of all crimes.