President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday called on a conference in Cape Town on the Palestinian issue to produce results that could be discussed at the African Union summit in Ethiopia next week.
Speaking at the opening of the United Nations African Meeting in Support of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Mbeki said the Palestinian problem should be included among the challenges facing Africa.
He said Africa faces challenging situations of conflict that have to be dealt with. However, the continent should not become preoccupied with its own problems and he urged that Palestine be included among the challenges it needs to resolve.
Mbeki called on the meeting to produce ”outcomes” that should indicate what needs to be done.
”Those outcomes should considered by the summit of the AU due to start in Addis Ababa in less than a fortnight,” he said.
Mbeki said a resolution to the Palestinian problem has to be found.
”We can never be secure when we see many people dying … the African continent must engage these issues [African and Palestinian] and contribute what we can,” he said.
Mbeki said it is a false position to assume that any support for the Palestinian people is a condemnation of Israel.
”What we want is peace and prosperity for both. [These] can never be achieved in Israel if they are denied to the people of Palestine,” he said.
However, he was critical of Israel for the part it played in preventing the Palestinian Liberation Order’s Yasser Arafat from travelling abroad.
”Nobody has the right to decide for a people who [their] leader should be,” Mbeki said.
Mbeki ended his address with messages to the Palestinian people and one to Israel.
”The people of Palestine have suffered for too long. But the length of your struggle does not mean that it will not eventually succeed.”
And to Israel, he said: ”The future of Israel depends on the establishment of a Palestinian state and no amount of force will persuade a people to give up their rights.”
The conference continues for two days. Plans for a protest by the Cape Town Anti-War Coalition outside the Cape Town International Conference Centre on Tuesday did not materialise, but security officials said it might take place later in the day. Security at the venue was tight, with all entrances and exits guarded by police. — Sapa
Scores protest at Palestinian meeting