Take action against Israel
ISRAEL's attacks in Palestine are systematic genocide and Israel has long ago lost its right to be considered a state with any semblance of human rights ethics. Our television screens have been bombarded by screams and pictures of dead bodies of our fellow Palestinians killed by Israel.
What has been most worrying is that the Palestinian people have been and always will be our fraternal allies, yet as the country we are not taking decisive action against Israel. We cannot have a whole world held to ransom by one pariah state, called Israel, having the licence to murder children and innocent civilians in the name of self-defence.
Israel has appropriated to itself the sole right to contravene international law and bully the whole world into cowardly submission, in the way the UN has been rendered such a pitiful object of apology instead of dealing decisively with this new global centre of human shame and suffering. Israel does not shy away from the disproportionate and illegal use of violence against those it perceives as enemies.
Hamas chose to do something about the situation. After years of watching their own Palestinian people being illegally evicted, they resorted to firing rockets.
They still maintain explicitly that if Israel leaves the land it illegally occupies, Hamas will cease fire.
Our position as South Africa is to state unapologetically that we are one-sided and partisan when it comes to supporting the inalienable rights of the Palestinians for self-determination. This is the position supported by the vast majority of the progressive countries of the world.
We cannot be silenced because of the erroneous suggestions that criticisms of the Israel government's policies are anti- Semitic, one-sided and not objective. The ANC since its inception has been in the forefront in the fight against anti-Semitism and this position will never change.
Our policy on the Middle East peace process is firmly based on all the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, the Oslo frame of reference and the Arab Peace Initiative. We make no apologies for the fact that South Africa is partisan when it supports calls for the creation of a Palestinian state, based on the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side by side and in peace with Israel.
It must be very clear that we will continue to be partisan and biased when we express concern about the humanitarian catastrophe engulfing the Palestinian people.
However, we must do more than lament and carry banners. I support the call made by Cosatu on the Department of International Relations immediately to expel the Israeli ambassador to South Africa, Arthur Lenk,and to recall Sisa Ngombane from Tel Aviv.
I further believe that South Africa must deny Israel any formal recognition. The Department of Trade and Industry must not allow Israeli goods in this country. We must support a complete boycott, disinvestment and sanctions programme.
Gift Ngqondi, ANC and Samwu member and political researcher
