The SA Zionist Federation says the Israeli army was forced to intervene against violent protests by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in which at least 58 people were killed and close to 2 000 people were hurt.
Earlier President Cyril Ramaphosa says he’s deeply concerned about the actions of the Israeli military. South Africa withdrew its ambassador to Israel following the killing of Palestinian protesters along the the Gaza-Israel border.
Ramaphosa says “We’ve asked our Ambassador to come back home and explain to us what has happened and how the events are taking place. Because the killing of more than 50 people is a matter of concern to all of us and should be a real concern to South Africans and the world. So it’s going to be a briefing session on what happened and we see how we take if forward.”
The protests were against the relocating of the US embassy to Jerusalem. Ben Swartz from the Zionist federation says some of the protesters were from the militant group Hamas.
“Another point that has been issued by the Israeli defence force that I saw in the news as I was walking in is that 25 or 24 of the victims, and this is within a period of 24 hours, have been confirmed as active Hamas activists or militants. That’s within 24 hours, so to say that these were civilians women and children I think is again very presumptuous and doesn’t fit the narrative of what I’m researching and what I’m hearing.”
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies has requested a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa to discuss the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
This in the wake of South Africa’s decision to withdraw its ambassador to Israel following the killing of more than 50 Palestinians by Israeli forces during a protest along the Gaza border.
The protest for the return of occupied Palestinian land which takes place on the 15th of May annually was given impetus by the controversial opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem.
The Jewish community in South Africa has lashed out at Pretoria for what it calls double standards. Zev Krengel is the vice president of the South African Jewish board of deputies.
“We are very upset with the stance that the South African government has taken because we see that as totally double standards. No other country has done that to the Jewish state. They have not done that with Syria where 500 000 civilian deaths, three chemical attacks on its own people , they have done nothing in Kenya, they have done nothing in the DRC, they have done nothing in Zimbabwe. So our view is that this is unbelievably double standards and we are very upset as the local Jewish community. We have requested a meeting with the presidency,” says Krengel.
Meanwhile, EFF leader Julius Malema has slammed African governments which attended the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem on Monday. The ceremony was endorsed by more than two-dozen African countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Angola and Zambia marked the official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel.
Malema has accused some African states of undermining the Palestinian liberation struggle.
“We are very disappointed at African countries which had celebrated the declaration of Jerusalem as the official capital city of Israel by the USA. That is the highest form of betrayal because us as Africans should know that colonialism and imperialism have no place in humanity. Its a violation of human rights to go and occupy the land of Palestinians. We don’t support that,” says Malema.
