The government’s invitation extended by Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas to visit South Africa has evoked mixed emotions from the South African society.
The move was strongly condemned on Friday by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), while the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) backed it.
Board chairperson Michael Bagraim said the Jewish community viewed the invitation as an indication of South Africa’s solidarity with an organisation whose racist ideology, openly genocidal agenda against the Jewish people and record of having perpetrated some of the most barbarous terrorist atrocities in modern times had made it an international pariah.
”Expressing support for an organisation whose very founding charter describes the Jewish people as fundamentally evil enemies of humanity and calls for their total annihilation fundamentally contradicts both the ideals of South Africa and of the ruling African National Congress itself,” he said.
Bagraim commended South Africa’s ambassador to Israel, Major General Fumanekile Gqiba, for his strong condemnation of Palestinian terrorism.
Unfortunately, South Africa’s voting record in the United Nations and the statements and actions of senior government leaders, including Kasrils, had been telling a very different story.
”As Jews and as South African citizens, we cannot but view these developments with the deepest unhappiness,” Bagraim said.
However, Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said in another statement the federation was in full support of the invitation.
”We applaud the minister’s assurance, at a joint news conference with Haniyeh in Gaza, that South Africa stands by and supports the new Palestinian unity government, a coalition of Hamas and the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and that ‘We in South Africa look forward to you being able to lead a delegation to our country’.
”He has stressed that the invitation is to the leader of the democratically elected government and not to the leader of the Hamas party,” Craven said.
Cosatu would support any moves by the South African government to promote peace in the Middle East and advance the struggle of the ”oppressed people” of Palestine for national sovereignty and human rights. — Sapa