Cape Town and Johannesburg joined rallies held globally to mark a year of Israel’s war on Gaza.
About 20,000 residents of Cape Town led by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Palestine Solidarity Alliance, and the South African BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) Coalition marched to parliament on Saturday calling for the adoption of the ‘Apartheid Bill’ to isolate Israel.
In May, South Africa ratified the Apartheid Convention and solidarity organisations have developed it further and now are demanding that parliament adopts the United Nations (UN) International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.
“We have lost patience with our government. It needs to do much more to punish Israel and contribute towards stopping the genocide and liberate Palestine. For the past 10 years, we have called on our government to apply boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israel. It has not heeded our call. We want parliament to adopt the legislation as soon as possible so that we can start punishing Israel and put an end to the genocide,” said Palestine Solidarity Campaign treasurer, Martin Jansen before handing over the memorandum of demands and the Apartheid Bill to the chairperson of parliament’s committee on international relations, Supra Mahumapelo.
Jansen said that they will monitor and pressure politicians and political parties to adopt the convention. “We call on the South African government, parliament and all the political parties to fulfil the pledge that they made at the Nakba Day rally,” he said.
In May, just few days before the general elections, seven political parties signed a pledge committing to pass legislation in support of BDS against Israel.
South-African-Palestinian author and associate professor of Postcolonial and Postmodern Literature at Gaza’s al-Aqsa University, Haidar Eid, called on the South African government to do more for the Palestinian cause as the country that experienced apartheid. “We want more from South Africa – yes you took Israel to the International Court of Justice but there are South African soldiers who are killing children in Gaza. For how long are you going to tolerate that? There are South African mercenaries killing Lebanese children. We want the international community to isolate Apartheid Israel,” he said.
Founder and leader of the Gift of the Givers, Dr Imtiaz Ismail Sooliman said that his team members in Gaza have lost 175 family members since the start of the war. Pro-Palestinian protests were held in major cities around the world including in Johannesburg to condemn Israel as its war on Gaza reaches the one-year mark.
“Everytime we have protested, the Zionists are too clever. They have been arrogant and put fear into you. They put fear into corporations, into universities, governments and they run the world with fear. Everytime you say something, they say you’re being anti-semitic. Well, I have message for them. They need to find a new narrative because that is boring, dull and stupid,” Sooliman said.
Anti-apartheid, activist and clergy, Dr Allan Boesak, called for the South African government to stop trading with Israel. Amongst others, South Africa exports diamonds, coal and grapes to Israel. “Why is Anglo Gold and all those other companies who have South Africans as board members allowed to fuel genocide? We have to have a government that is no longer happy with gestures to appease us and to look good to the international community. We cannot go to the international court and win the case and refuse to execute the orders of the court,” Boesak said.
While accepting the memorandum and the Apartheid Bill, Supra Mahumapelo promised that they will respond to the demands in due course.
GroundUp has reported that the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) has issued a statement condemning the march in Cape Town, “unequivocally” rejecting “its premise and purpose”. “This march, predicated on baseless accusations of genocide against Israel, not only propagates dangerous falsehoods but also trivialises genuine instances of genocide throughout history,” said the SAZF.
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