Cape Town - The ANC Youth League in the Western Cape plans to picket outside Parliament until South Africa recalls its ambassador to Israel and expels Israel’s ambassador from the country.
League members started their picket outside Parliament on Tuesday in a bid to highlight what it called the “slaughter of the Palestine people”.
UCT student Lwazi Somya, 21, read out the names of more than 500 Palestinians killed since the Israeli offensive started about two weeks ago.
“We read out the names to sensitise people to the fact that these were individuals with families with mothers and fathers, and they’ve been killed by a ruthless machine,” Somya said.
Youth league Western Cape convener Muhammed Khalid Sayed said it was important to commemorate the lives taken.
“Putting a name to the ever-increasing death toll in Gaza is but one way to shed light on what is happening. We want people to understand that those who have died during the past two weeks had loved ones,” he said.
Sayed called for tougher action against Israel, adding that the time had come for the ANC to implement its own resolutions on Palestine.
“It is obvious to all that recalling our ambassador and expelling the Israeli ambassador is the moral, principled… and necessary response to the murder of over 500 Palestinians by the Israeli apartheid government,” Sayed said.
Expressing the league’s frustration that the country had not recalled its ambassador, Sayed said it could not wait for the murder of more Palestinians before something was done.
“We want our leaders to know that every day that the world allows the Israeli government to act with impunity, people are murdered,” he said.
“We need our leaders to act urgently and lead the world in decisive action,” he said.
Cape Argus