Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, former president of the African National Congress Women's League, said on Thursday: "Apartheid Israel can be defeated, just as apartheid in South Africa was defeated."
Madikizela-Mandela was addressing a meeting arranged by the Palestine Solidarity organisation in Lenasia, Johannesburg, to protest against the recent assassination by the Israeli state of the leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
She described the killing of Yassin - who inspired a campaign of suicide bombings in Israel - as a "cowardly act that took the life of a brave hero".
Madikizela-Mandela said the United States government's response to the killing was "wishy washy", and she criticised the US for not describing Israel as a terrorist state.
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'They kill our sons, but they will never kill the spirit of our people' The Palestinian ambassador to South Africa, Salman Eiherfi, greeted the crowd with a shout of "Viva, Palestine, viva!"
Eiherfi said: "They kill our sons, but they will never kill the spirit of our people. Although they have killed Yassin, other Yassins have been born."
He said the security wall being built by Israel was aimed at "killing the spirit of the Palestinian people, and hope for an independent Palestinian state".
He said the first prime minister of Israel, David Ben Gurion, once described Ariel Sharon, the current prime minister who ordered the assassination of Yassin, as "thirsty for blood".
Among the posters that were displayed read: "Ariel Sharon is a mass murderer", "Zionism equals to Nazism", "Apartheid Israel has weapons of mass destruction", "What's wrong with the single state solution?" and "Expel Israel from South Africa".
'Zionism equals to Nazism' Palestine Solidarity chairman Naazim Adam said the organisation strongly condemned the killing of Yassin. He urged the South African government to show more support for the Palestinians.
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