Cape Town - As some countries recall their ambassadors from Tel Aviv with Bolivia, the latest country to sever all diplomatic ties with Israel, pro-Palestine protesters have called out hypocrisy by Cyril Ramaphosa and the government which have yet to shut down the Israeli Embassy in South Africa.
Hundreds of people gathered on Thursday on the corners of Caledon and Tenant streets, for a picket organised by the Al Quds Foundation SA and the Muslim Judicial Council SA, and supported by the PAC, ANC, Cosatu, UDM and Al Jama-ah, among others.
Al Jama-ah Party national spokesperson Shameemah Dollie Salie said: “South African people have asked over and over for the expulsion of the ambassador of Israel. The government has ties with Israel. The same way the DA-run City of Cape Town has ties with Israel. It comes down to money, power, and greed.”
The SACP in the Western Cape joined in solidarity with the people of Palestine, and to picket over austerity measures ahead of the tabling of the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS).
The SACP spokesperson in the Western Cape, Monde Nqulwana, said: “The people of Palestine must be given their sovereignty, they must be given their freedom, they (Israel) must stop killing civilians there, innocent people. They must cease occupation of Palestinian land.”
Al Quds Foundation SA director Sheikh Ebrahim Gabriels said initially a march was to take place but this was later changed to a picket due to the MTBPS and road closures.
“The main issues are that the people of the world, including the people of South Africa, are asking to stop the genocide. We are very uncomfortable about the situation in the UN, where most of the countries have asked and agreed that there must be a ceasefire and that humanitarian aid must go into Gaza for years. I hope that the people of the world will be able to change it that one (United States) country has veto power.”
The Director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Craig Mokhiber has resigned from his position in protest over the UN’s inaction in preventing what he has called a “textbook case of genocide”.
“Once again, we are seeing a genocide unfolding before our eyes, and the organisation we serve appears powerless to stop it,” Mokhiber said in letter addressed to the High Commissioner.
He also blamed the governments of the US, UK, and much of Europe for being “wholly complicit in the horrific assault”.
Zwelivelile Mandla Mandela called on the Arab League of Nations to step in.
“It is time that we call on the Arab League of Nations to use the power and might at their disposal to support Palestine and form embargoes (against) all countries which are complicit in these crimes of wars, in this ethnic cleansing, and in the genocide that we are watching on TV on daily basis,” he said.
Reverend Allan Boesak said: “We asked him (Cyril Ramaphosa) to support the boycotts, divestment, and sanctions because he knows what he ought to know if he still remembers, but money is a funny thing. Money makes your ears go deaf, money makes your eyes go blind, you don't see the misery of people anymore, that’s why he forgets that there were boycotts, divestments and sanctions …
“This is not a war of self-defence as Israel claims, bombing churches, that's not self-defence. Bombing schools, that's not self-defence. Bombing hospitals with little babies in incubators, that's not self defence. Killing children by the thousands, that's not self-defence.”
With more than 3 000 children killed, Unicef spokesperson James Elder said Gaza has become a graveyard for children.
Boesak also criticised the hosting of the U.S’ African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in South Africa, while the U.S has been a principal funder and supporter of Israel and genocide in Gaza.
Determined to take their demands and message as closest to the City Hall, where National Assembly members would meet for the MTBPS, the protesters carrying faux body shrouds of children, vowed to march but were prevented from doing so by the Public Order Police who had threatened to take action should the protesters not retreat to the original picket site.
Joining and leading the march were several artists part of African Artists Against Apartheid.
After some time and interventions from Boesak among others, police allowed the protesters to proceed with the march.
