About 1 000 Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) shop stewards gathered outside the United States embassy in Pretoria on Tuesday to demand that the country stop supporting Israel.
Although peaceful, the crowd vocally objected when US representatives refused to receive their memorandum outside the embassy compound. They also shouted ”phansi Israel, phansi” (down with Israel) when told that Israeli representatives would not come to the US embassy to receive their memorandum.
”We will give it to their [Israel’s] uncle [US President George] Bush, so that [he] can give it to his nephew Israel,” Cosatu president Willie Madisha told the protesters.
In the memorandum, eventually handed to a US embassy official, Cosatu demanded that the US stop supporting Israel and lift the sanctions it had imposed on the Palestinian Authority.
It also demanded that the US respect the democratically elected government of Palestine and that it must see the peace agreement between Israel and Palestine come into effect.
Madisha also urged the South African government to break its diplomatic ties with Israel and called for sanctions against the country.
The union federation also threatened to invade the US embassy the next time it protested in solidarity with Palestine.
Earlier, at a gathering at the Pretoria City Hall, Madisha told supporters that Israel was an ”evil state”.
”Apartheid Israel is an evil state and it’s getting support from evil men, Bush and [British Prime Minister Tony] Blair.”
The group then marched without permission to the US embassy, causing some traffic delays in the city. — Sapa