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President Ramaphosa’s meeting with Rabbi Doron Perez, father of IDF soldier Daniel Perez, raises questions over South African law on foreign military service and whether it affects the country’s genocide case against Israel at the ICJ.
By IQBAL JASSAT
The question doing the rounds is whether meeting the family of a South African citizen serving as an Israeli soldier, as President Ramaphosa did, has undermined South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice?
Equally concerning is whether the meeting will now be interpreted by South African mercenaries operating and deployed within the settler colonial regime’s military, as kosher and “permissible” despite legislation that prohibits it.
Though the official version is that the Perez family had prompted a meeting to thank Ramaphosa for facilitating the release and return of Daniel Perez’s remains, it is silent on who the slain soldier was.
From open-source information we learn Daniel Perez was a South African-born tank commander and soldier who, in battle with Palestine’s liberation movement Hamas during its October 7, 2023, attempt to break free of Israel’s illegal siege, was killed and taken hostage.
He was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and raised in Glenhazel before his family moved to Israel in 2014.
The son of Rabbi Doron Perez, the World Mizrachi Executive Chairman, Daniel served as a young officer and tank commander in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
Surely the highest political office in South Africa, that of the office of the Presidency, is expected to be aware and mindful of laws related to foreign mercenary activities?
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The legal framework governing mercenary activity is the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act (RFMAA).
This law requires any South African citizen or permanent resident to get prior approval from the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) before joining any foreign military force.
Serving in the IDF or any other foreign armed force without explicit authorisation from the NCACC breaks South African law and makes the individual liable to arrest and criminal prosecution.
By pursuing its groundbreaking case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to charge Israel for the crime of genocide, South Africa emerged as a powerful voice in defence of Palestinian human rights.
The lawsuit it filed during December 2023 not only accused the Netanyahu regime of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention, but also asserted that Israel’s brutal military campaign, suffocating blockade, and inhumane restrictions on medical aid and food in Gaza were calculated to annihilate Palestinians as a group.
Evidence submitted by South Africa claimed “acts and omissions” by Israel “are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group”.
Within a month, in January 2024, the ICJ ruled that a plausible risk of genocide exists and ordered provisional protection measures, though it stopped short of ordering an immediate total ceasefire.
During March 2026, in considering Israel’s response to the ICJ, the South African (SA) Presidency issued a statement which noted that during the intervening period, Palestinians in Gaza continue to face ongoing bombardment from Israeli strikes, with unabated loss of life, damage to critical infrastructure and precarious living conditions for people in Gaza.
The SA Presidency argued that the killings continued despite the purported ceasefire of October 10, 2025 and three binding ICJ orders secured by South Africa – the first of which came over two years ago – compelling Israel, amongst other things, to prevent the commission of genocidal acts and “ensure, without delay, … the unhindered provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance”.
Against this background of a powerful moral and legal stance, one had hoped that genocidaires, especially South African mercenaries deployed in Israel’s military, would face the full might of the law.
Interestingly, a 2024 statement from former South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor is currently circulating again online.
At the time, Pandor warned that South African citizens who joined the Israeli military to fight in Gaza could face arrest upon returning home.
South Africa explicitly prohibits citizens from rendering any foreign military assistance without the permission of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee.
Section 198(b) of the Constitution precludes South African citizens from participating in any foreign armed conflict. The Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act, 1998 effectively criminalises such actions.
In addition to Pandor’s threats to have South African citizens fighting in the Israel Defence Forces prosecuted, the government also warned in December 2023 that naturalised South Africans could have their citizenship revoked for joining foreign armed forces engaged in wars.
Michelle Nel, an expert in international law and military law, made the following observations in an interview with The Conversation:
“‘Foreign military assistance’ is widely defined. It includes not only the actual rendering of such assistance, but any attempt to render assistance, any encouragement, incitement or solicitation thereof. It criminalises: providing advice or training any personnel or operational support; recruitment; medical services; procurement of equipment; security services such as those rendered by private military companies in areas of conflict; assisting in coups or furthering the military interests of parties to a conflict”.
Regrettably, despite numerous complaints lodged with the South African Police Service (SAPS) as well as the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) by solidarity groups, including Media Review Network, to probe and prosecute SA individuals serving in the IDF, thus far no movement in this regard.
Although legislation exists, the efficacy of it depends on enforcement. Failure to do so is inexcusable.
The lack of prosecutorial action since the initial formidable complaint during the 2008/9 Zionist war on Gaza dubbed Operation Cast Lead, and subsequent complaints leading up to the current ongoing genocide, displays arrogance and indifference.
The message it sends is that South Africa is a safe haven for perpetrators of crimes against the Palestinian people.
Indeed, for decades such criminals who regularly enjoy vacations in Cape Town do so with little fear of legal consequences.
Whatever else may have been discussed with Ramaphosa apart from the public version of a “thank you”, the fact is that Daniel Perez was a platoon commander in the 7th Armoured Brigade’s 77th Battalion, from Yad Binyamin.
At the time of his death, his father confirmed that Perez held a South African passport, reported News24.
Iqbal Jassat is an Executive Member of Media Review Network.
