President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa. File photo.
By Lama El Horr, – Jul 27, 2025
In a world ruled by the arbitrary use of force, just causes abound. There is one, however, that exudes such violence that it encompasses all denials of justice at once and sparks revolt across borders: the Palestinian cause.
Cyril Ramaphosa’s South Africa has clearly understood the global significance of this struggle of all struggles and has repeatedly reminded the international community that, in line with Mao Zedong’s forward-thinking intuition, the struggle of the Palestinian people is the focal point of all other struggles for emancipation.
From Mao’s China to Ramaphosa’s South Africa, one slogan: Palestine
A week before the Six-Day War, an official statement from the Chinese government emphasized that “The struggle of the Arab peoples against American imperialism and Zionism is an important component of the global struggle against imperialism.” This statement reflected the vision of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, for whom the Arab anti-imperialist front was a shield for both Asia and Africa.
Pretoria helped restore the truth about the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has been the victim not only of a murderous assault by the Israel-Washington duo
In a way, China had just sketched out a roadmap for the global anti-imperialist struggle: it must consist of solidarity between Asia and Africa and rely on the Arab world, which is on the front line.
Following his release from apartheid prisons, Nelson Mandela made the same observation: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” The significance of this reality never left the South African fighter, who declared again in 1999, “Any talk of peace will remain hollow as long as Israel continues to occupy Arab territory”—a reminder that, despite the abolition of the apartheid regime, South Africa had not completed its struggle for freedom.
Today, in a context of imperialist expansion that is terrifying the world, Cyril Ramaphosa’s South Africa has decided to take up the torch of this global struggle against imperialism, rooting it in the Palestinian cause. Through this choice, the South African president is reminding us of an undeniable truth: the colonial history shared by the BRICS countries and the Global South means they are destined to fight the same battle for emancipation.
Cyril Ramaphosa’s Original Sin
It will not have escaped anyone’s notice that Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency has had a seismic effect on the international scene and given spectacular impetus to the construction of multipolarity.
The facts speak for themselves: Ramaphosa’s country is now associated with the first significant expansion of the BRICS to include major African and Asian countries, including Egypt and Iran. It is also associated with the integration of the African continent into the G20 economic forum, from which Africa had previously been excluded. It is again South Africa’s shadow that hangs over Washington’s decision to boycott this year’s G20 meetings, organized by the South African presidency. And for good reason: Pretoria has broken a taboo by attacking the ally without which the United States would no longer be an empire: the Israeli occupation regime.
By taking Israel to the International Court of Justice for violating the Genocide Convention, Ramaphosa’s country has dealt a severe blow to the global imperialist oligarchy. Through these proceedings before the UN’s highest court, South Africa has not only exposed the atrocities of the Israeli regime—which has been widely shown to accumulate crimes of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide—but has also turned the spotlight on the sponsors and protectors of this colonialist regime, namely Washington and its allies in the EU and NATO.
Logically, the sponsors of this plan to annihilate the Palestinians felt just as threatened as the perpetrators. It is therefore not surprising to see the malicious reversal of accusations in the US and Europe, where all those who denounce this macabre plan are hunted down and persecuted, shamelessly prosecuted for “apologizing for terrorism.” The UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Italian Francesca Albanese, has not escaped the imperialist sword either, as she was subjected to sanctions immediately after revealing the names of the entities benefiting from these crimes against humanity. Washington has pushed the deception to the point of adopting executive orders against Ramaphosa’s country, accusing it of violating “human rights,” committing “anti-white genocide,” persecuting its Israeli ally, and even drawing closer to Iran.
South Africa Accuses ‘Israel’ of Genocide in Palestine at International Court of Justice
The battle is not won, but it has spread like wildfire
The legal action taken by Pretoria against the Israeli regime is all the more threatening to Washington and its satellites because it embodies political and legal cooperation between the African and Asian continents, two regions that colonial history has kept in contempt and ignorance of each other. These legal proceedings have also taken on a global dimension, as the list of countries joining Pretoria’s complaint continues to grow, with Brazil being the latest addition. This globalization of anti-imperialist rebellion is further confirmed by the creation of the Hague Group, a global coalition against genocide in Palestine co-led by South Africa and Colombia, which has set itself the task of translating the countless condemnations of the Israeli occupation regime by international courts and UN bodies into concrete action.
What’s more, in the context of imperialist wars of conquest in West Asia (from the Palestinian territories to Iran, via Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen), Pretoria’s initiatives have had the effect of legitimizing the armed struggle of regional resistance movements, drawing an unequivocal parallel between the ANC’s armed struggle against the South African apartheid regime and the Resistance Axis’ armed struggle against the Israeli colonialist regime and its Euro-Atlantic sponsors.
Similarly, Pretoria helped restore the truth about the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has been the victim not only of a murderous assault by the Israel-Washington duo but also of a torrent of media lies aimed at legitimizing a new violation of international law by the Israeli-Atlantic axis—with the unwavering approval of the European Union.
Pretoria has therefore brought common sense back to the center of the debate: the Israeli occupation regime is, to say the least, illegitimate, since it is a colonialist, segregationist, expansionist, and genocidal regime.
By successfully uniting Africa, Asia, and Latin America, Cyril Ramaphosa’s South African initiatives take on an inevitably post-imperialist dimension, echoing not only Mao Zedong’s thirst for freedom but also the great march of the BRICS and the Global South toward a multipolar world—through the bloody wounds of Palestine.
Lama El Horr
Lama El Horr is the Founding Editor of China Beyond the Wall. She is a geopolitical consultant and analyst specializing in Chinese foreign policy, geopolitics and geoeconomics. She holds a PhD from Paris-Sorbonne University and has also studied at the LSE. Lama El Horr has worked in the government, academic and media sectors in Europe, China, Latin America, and the Middle East, and is fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic.
