No truth in Malema's claim Israel funds DA, says party

EFF leader Julius Malema's comments that the Democratic Alliance is funded by the people of Israel has no substance, the DA said on Monday (28/07/2014).

"Everyone in South Africa knows that everything that Julius says does not have substance," DA international relations spokesman Stevens Mokgalapa said.

"He says reckless things without thinking. We are not concerned by his comments."

Mokgalapa said Malema was trying to politicise an issue that was of real concern in the Middle East.

"It's a real issue. People are dying, and we have called for a cease-fire."

During the Economic Freedom Fighters' one year anniversary rally on Saturday, Malema said the DA should be rejected as it was funded by people from Israel.

"All of us must reject the DA. The DA gets money from Israel," he told supporters at Thokoza Park in Soweto.

The EFF was the only organisation in South Africa that supported Palestine, he claimed.

French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that at least 1032 Palestinians, 43 Israeli soldiers, and three civilians have died since July 8.

On Saturday, the two sides observed a 12-hour humanitarian truce, giving Gaza medics a chance to pull bodies from rubble they had not been able to reach.

Israel had accepted a 24-hour extension of the truce on Sunday but abandoned it after a rocket was fired toward Israel.

Subsequent calls for another ceasefire were ignored by both sides. - Sapa