- The Israeli embassy in Pretoria is to be closed, and diplomatic ties will be halted until a truce in Israel’s conflict with Hamas, an Islamist organization based in Gaza, is agreed upon by MPs in South Africa.
- Since President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration will decide whether to follow the resolution or not, it is essentially symbolic.
- Ramaphosa and other high-ranking officials from the foreign ministry have openly criticized Israel’s leadership throughout its catastrophic military assault against Hamas in the densely populated Gaza Strip, and they have demanded that the International Criminal Court look into any war crimes committed by them. A request for response from the Israeli embassy was not immediately answered.
- The opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party introduced the parliamentary resolution last week after the ruling African National Congress (ANC) promised to back South Africa’s core diplomatic position ever since Nelson Mandela was elected as the nation’s first democratic president in 1994.
- The final point of the EFF draft resolution, which called for the closure of the embassy and diplomatic suspension, was changed by ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina to read, “… until a ceasefire is agreed to by Israel and Israel commits to binding United Nations-facilitated negotiations whose outcome must be a just, sustainable and lasting peace.”
- For many years, South Africa has supported Palestinian statehood in Israeli-occupied lands, drawing comparisons between the Palestinian situation and that of the Black majority during the oppressive apartheid era.
Source:
Reuters
