South African Government Orders Israeli Ambassador to Leave South Africa Because of Palestine

Written by The African National Congress in Parliament (ANC)....

Following nationwide protests across South Africa against the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza (Israel has killed over 400 Palestinians including 100 children in the last 10 days) the ANC in Parliament has called for the Israeli ambassador in South Africa to leave with immediate effect.

The ANC must implement this and the decision to recall the South African Ambassador from Tel Aviv with urgency.

The African National Congress in Parliament is extremely outraged by the wanton and unjustifiable bombardment and killings of innocent civilians, including children, in Palestinian territory of Gaza by
Israel military forces. We echo the widespread condemnation of these senseless attacks on defenceless Palestinians and call on the government of Israel to immediately cease with this blatant act of criminality.

It is unacceptable that as the Israeli military is flagrantly violating the territorial integrity of Gaza, claiming hundreds of lives and injuring thousands, the United Nations Security Council fails to intervene decisively in line with its powers. The office of the UN Secretary General issues statements which have not effect.

The UN Security Council must stand up and act to support vulnerable Palestinian people at the time when they need their protection. The situation involving Palestine and Israel is an undeclared war, in which the aggressor, Israel, has destroyed the Palestinian economy, robbed people of their land, unilaterally changed borders, and unilaterally built a wall of exclusion to keep Palestinians out of their land. When it feels provoked, it unleashes the most sophisticated military hardware on a defenceless people.

Palestinians have been reduced to cheap labour for the Israel economy. This relentless destruction of
the Palestinian territory and its people by Israel must be stopped. The international community
needs to act in unison on this matter.

As the ANC in Parliament, we stand unapologetically with the people of Palestine and pro-Palestinian
campaigners in an endeavour to exert pressure on Israel’s government to comply with the UN Security
Council resolutions and stop its killings and gross persecution of Palestinian people. We remain
resolute in our view that the only long lasting peaceful solution to the situation in the Middle East
is the attainment of a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine in which the two states exist
side by side independently and peacefully.

Our strong condemnation of Israel's violent aggression, however, does not in any way mean approval of the continuing firing of rockets by Hamas into Israel, which has put the lives of innocent civilians at risk.

We echo the call by the South African government for both parties to end all
forms of aggression towards one another.

The ANC in Parliament will mobilise other political formations in this institution to take a principled
stand against the criminal acts of Israel and further to ensure that Parliament as an institution formally
condemns the deadly violence visited upon the people of Palestine. We will also invite other parties
to the lunchtime picketing outside Parliament in support of the people of Palestine and in calling for
peace in the Middle East region. As one of the measures to put pressure on Israel, we are of a firm
view that our government must recall our ambassador to Israel and also ask the Israel ambassador to South African to leave with immediate effect.

During this International Nelson Mandela Day in which South Africans and the world are called upon
to engage in noble acts in emulation of the world icon, we align ourselves with his profound statement that “our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians”.

Courtesy of: alternativenews