There are South African citizens who have joined the Israeli army. We have been told that they have not applied for permission to do so. They are bearing arms against Palestinians in events that the International Court of Justice has condemned as plausibly genocide.
I am Jewish. I am a member of South African Jews for a Free Palestine and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, but not their spokesperson. I support the boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns against Zionist Israel. I was in Kliptown at the Congress of the People in 1955.
It is not always easy to live with the South African Constitution. Some of its standards are heavy and demanding. Sometimes it takes courage to be a South African.
There is an Italian song I’ve known from the 1950s when I picked it up along with banned literature and forbidden ideas. It was the theme song of the hit Netflix Spanish series, Money Heist. I’ve heard it recently on a local radio station, but the presenters say nothing about its significance — at most, they merely remark on its catchy rhythm. The refrain is easily remembered. I’m sure that people hum it absentmindedly while thinking about something else.
It’s “Bella Ciao” — an Italian antifascist song from World War 2. I believe that it was brought by Italian volunteers to the International Brigades that fought in 1936-1938 against the fascists in Spain. Hearing it is an easy bridge to memory: I had the rare privilege and honour of meeting two former members of the British International Brigade.
It was in October 1983 in London’s Hyde Park, at what was till then the biggest-ever demonstration in the UK. It was organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament against the Thatcher government’s decision to promote nuclear weapons. The demonstration was supported by many organisations, including the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the UK branch of the African National Congress, which were both further reasons for me to be there.
It was an enormous event. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament modestly says that there were 400,000 there. If I remember correctly, the estimate of the sympathetic Communist daily newspaper, the Morning Star, was 750,000. I think it was one of the Tory-supporting papers that reported that the Metropolitan Police themselves had estimated about one million — an ironic reversal of how the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Anti-Apartheid Movement demonstrations were reported till then.
International Brigade
By chance, as we reached Hyde Park, I saw Mike Economides from Cyprus. I had been introduced to him in the past by his son Kim, who was one of my colleagues and who is immensely proud of his father. Mike introduced me to the man he was with — Dave Cohen, from London’s East End. Mike explained that he and Dave knew each other from the International Brigade, having volunteered in 1936-1938. Mike told Dave that I was a South African and an active ANC member, and Dave greeted me warmly.
In such company the conversation was naturally political. They talked about the need for peace, their fears of war, and they asked me about events in South Africa. A police helicopter clattered above the vast crowd. Watching it, Dave asked thoughtfully, “Mike, do you remember the trimotores?” They told me about the three-engined Junkers JU-52 bombers supplied by Germany and used against them in Spain by the fascists.
It moved me that, after so many years, Spain was still important to them. They still believed they were right to join the International Brigade, and this certainty brought them to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament demonstration. Their vision was clear — fascism meant war; nuclear disarmament and the fight against apartheid were inextricably linked if one wanted peace. They were proud of what they did, and 50 years later were still confident that they were right.
They were the only survivors of the International Brigade I ever met. They were very old men in 1983, and they are gone now. When I told Kim a few days ago that I was writing this, he told me that at Mike Economides’ funeral they played this recording of Bella Ciao.
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The civil war in Spain was complicated. The International Brigades were part of the defeat and the fascists took control. It was the unhappy curtain-raiser to World War 2, which was itself a curtain-raiser to innumerable further conflicts.
Mike Economides and Dave Cohen went to Spain because of what they believed in, and not for the pay — they were not mercenaries. The poet David Martin, who also fought in Spain, wrote The Burning River, a powerful epic about the International Brigades, published in an anthology called Trident. At one point, describing how British members of the International Brigade were welcomed back from Spain, he wrote:
“Flesh to flesh, meet again,
Brother Abel, Brother Cain,
When the transport makes the Clyde,
The Humber or Merseyside.
Sirens screaming, bells are ringing,
Bands are playing, streamers flinging,
Flags from every pole and gable:
Welcome soldier, welcome Abel,
Hero to your motherland.
Then he will say: I understand
Much better than you know, much deeper.
I will not be my brother’s keeper.
Here they come, here they come,
From London, Moscow, Amsterdam,
From all the lands through which I ranged.
How they suffered, how they changed!
What do you ask, what is your claim?
Write a new song in our name.
Write of the twilight whence we came,
Of countless battles which we fought,
Write of the hunter and the game,
Write of the days that went to nought.
Write of the risings without hope,
Of Connolly and Ferrer sing,
Sing of the bullet and the rope,
Of Warsaw, Cork and Ottakring.”
Mercenaries are those who take up arms to fight for pay in another country’s war, in which their own country is not involved. They are criminals under international law.
In South Africa, Section 198(b) of the Constitution states: “The resolve to live in peace and harmony precludes any South African citizen from participating in armed conflict, nationally or internationally, except as provided for in terms of the Constitution or national legislation.”
Accordingly, section 2 of the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act, 1998 (RFMAA) prohibits mercenarism.
However, South African law implicitly acknowledges the spirit of people like Mike Economides and Dave Cohen who joined the International Brigades. We must recognise it — our own Struggle against the apartheid regime was helped by such people. Sections 4 and 5 of the act make this possible: one must be given permission by the minister of defence, who is bound by the decision of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee, which will not grant its authorisation or approval if it would —
“(a) be in conflict with the Republic’s obligations in terms of international law;
(b) result in the infringement of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the territory in which the foreign military assistance is to be rendered;
(c) endanger the peace by introducing destabilising military capabilities into the region where the assistance is to be, or is likely to be, rendered or would otherwise contribute to regional instability and would negatively influence the balance of power in such region;
(d) support or encourage terrorism in any manner;
(e) contribute to the escalation of regional conflicts;
(f) prejudice the Republic’s national or international interests;
(g) be unacceptable for any other reason.
(2) A person whose application for an authorisation or approval in terms of section 4 or 5 has not been granted by the Minister may request the Minister to furnish written reasons for his or her decision.”
In 2024 the International Court of Justice ruled in an Advisory Opinion that Israel’s occupation of Palestine was unlawful. Accordingly, the General Assembly of the United Nations passed a resolution to give effect to the court’s decision; this “calls upon all states to comply with their obligations under international law”.
Among many details, it requires all states “to take steps to ensure that their nationals, and companies and entities under their jurisdiction, as well as their authorities, do not act in any way that would entail recognition or provide aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
There are South African citizens who have joined the Israeli army. We have been told that they have not applied for permission to do so. They are bearing arms against Palestinians in events which the International Court of Justice has condemned as plausibly genocide. South Africa itself initiated the case that determined this.
Mike Economides not long before his death in 1996. (Photo: courtesy Kim Economides)
It is unthinkable that the National Conventional Arms Control Committee would give its approval to what these citizens are doing. They are in clear violation of South Africa’s obligations under international law, and their actions “result in the infringement of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the territory in which the foreign military assistance is (being) rendered”.
The South African government has warned them, but there have been no prosecutions. The National Prosecuting Authority has refused to explain why this is the case. It has been provided with every necessary piece of evidence, including the names of South Africans who appear to have broken the law.
Discretion held by prosecutors
There is a discretion held by prosecutors when deciding whether or not to institute criminal proceedings. How it must be exercised is set out fully in the Prosecution Policy that the NPA has published as required by both section 179 of the Constitution and the National Prosecuting Authority Act. The document states: “In deciding whether or not to institute criminal proceedings against an accused person, prosecutors must assess whether there is sufficient and admissible evidence to provide a reasonable prospect of a successful prosecution. There must indeed be a reasonable prospect of a conviction, otherwise the prosecution should not be commenced or continued.”
Mike Economides as a volunteer during the Spanish Civil War. (Photo: courtesy Kim Economides)
Mike Economides' obituary in The Guardian in 1996. (Image: courtesy Kim Economides)
Kim Economides. (Photo: Supplied)
The document states further that: “Once a prosecutor is satisfied that there is sufficient evidence to provide a reasonable prospect of a conviction, a prosecution should normally follow, unless public interest demands otherwise.”
As the Constitution prescribes, it is a function that must be carried out “without fear, favour or prejudice”. Lawyers accordingly describe the decision to prosecute as a quasi-judicial one. Section 32(1) of the NPA Act rubs the point in at length:
“(a) A member of the prosecuting authority shall serve impartially and exercise, carry out or perform his or her powers, duties and functions in good faith and without fear, favour or prejudice and subject only to the Constitution and the law.
“(b) Subject to the Constitution and this Act, no organ of state and no member or employee of an organ of state nor any other person shall improperly interfere with, hinder or obstruct the prosecuting authority or any member thereof in the exercise, carrying out or performance of its, his or her powers, duties and functions.”
The section further requires a prosecutor to swear or to make an affirmation to act accordingly.
The Constitution states that the minister of justice must exercise final responsibility for the NPA. The NPA Act states what the minister’s responsibilities over the NPA are: there are several, and exercising the discretion to prosecute is not one of them. Deciding whether or not to prosecute is a filthy job, as they say, but someone has to do it, and that person is not the minister of justice. Prosecutors are certainly not in the business of being liked.
The poet David Martin.
In short, normally only a lack of evidence or the public interest should bar a prosecution. Paul Hendler and Martin Jansen describe the situation: “Over the past 16 years, the Palestine Solidarity Alliance, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Cape Town and the Media Review Network have submitted substantial evidence (over 900 pages of legal argument corroborated by largely self-incriminating social media posts) about participating in genocide, war crimes and acts violating International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law of over 100 South African volunteers for the Israel Defence Forces. These individuals as well as Zionist institutions facilitating their recruitment, likely violated a number of local laws.”
The authors add: “Notwithstanding the considerable body of prima facie evidence and legal argument, South Africa’s criminal investigation and prosecutorial authorities have failed to take any action. Their stated reasons are that there is insufficient evidence for them to act on, but satisfactorily identifying and assessing evidence requires considerable investigative resources beyond the scope of civil society organisations, but is well within the capacity of mandated state authorities. The likely reasons the police are stalling on further investigation are Western geopolitical influences as well as local interests that short circuit the organisational mechanisms of the criminal investigation and prosecutorial authorities.”
The United Nations has recently published a report titled, “More than a human can bear: Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since October 2023”.
Evidence
Its details spare nothing for the imagination. Much of it is based on what Israeli soldiers themselves recorded with their own cellphones. Doubtless, this will be added to South Africa’s evidence before the International Court of Justice in the genocide proceedings.
If the Israel Occupation Force is serving — as Zionists claim it to be doing — the interests of Jews, then what sort of people are we Jews who need such deeds to be done in our name?
As a Jew, I believe that prosecuting South Africans in the Israel Occupation Force is in the public interest. South Africans in the Israeli army are not inspired by the standards of the International Brigades.
In his recent State of the Nation speech, President Cyril Ramaphosa warned that South Africa “will not be bullied”. He was referring obliquely to pressure from America to end the genocide proceedings in the International Court of Justice. He set this in the context of the seventieth anniversary of the Freedom Charter. I was at the Congress of the People in 1955, and that is another memory for me.
In honour of Mike Economides and Dave Cohen, here are the last lines of the poem by David Martin:
“Leaves on leaves fall and rot,
Life on life, soon forgot,
Poems live, poets not.
To think my head, my heart, my hand,
Will be like rock or rain or sand,
Like sheets of fog in Charing Cross,
Dead, no more increase, no more loss:
I can not command the years.
My hopes, my sorrows, all my schemes
Must fade like unrecorded dreams,
More distant than Cassandra’s tears.
A dragon-fly entombed in amber,
A soulless relic, cold and strange.
But songs of man man will remember,
Changeless in life’s eternal change.” DM