SOUTH AFRICA GOVERNMENT WILL SUPPORT OPPOSITION MOTION TO CUT DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL

 

The South African government will support a motion filed by the opposition to break relations with Israel and close its embassy in Pretoria, a day after South African President, Cyril Ramphosa, announced that they will seek an investigation from the International Crime Court (ICC) for war crimes.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has advanced that its deputies in the Assembly will support next week the proposal put forward by the leader of the opposition Fighter for Economic Freedom (EFF), Julius Malema, although they hope to include some kind of clause to maintain a minimum diplomatic channel.

Malema has called for Ramaphosa to support the initiative, which includes closing the Embassy in Petronia to “end all diplomatic relations with the brutal Israeli regimen of the ‘apartheid’”, says the weekly ‘Mail & Guardian’.

Thus, it has called for isolation and imposition of international sanction on Israel “until the human rights of the Palestinians are respected, promoted and protected” and “ends its military occupation”.

South Africa’s sympathy for the Palestinian cause dates to the days of former President Nelson Mandela. In 1997, he already assured the freedom of the South African people “is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians”.