The row over Intelligence Minister Ronnis Kasrils’s invitation to Ismail Haniyeh to visit South Africa now seems to revolve around which hat the Hamas leader should wear.
Kasrils’s spokesperson, Lorna Daniels, insisted that the minister had expressed the desire to see Haniyeh, who is also the Palestinian Prime Minister, visit South Africa as part of a Palestinian unity government delegation. This prompted accusations by the Jewish Board of Deputies that Kasrils was ‘back-pedallingâ€.
Yet the board also appeared to moderate its position, saying it would welcome Haniyeh to South Africa as a government representative, but not as Hamas chief.
Daniels pointed out that only the foreign affairs department and President Thabo Mbeki had the power to issue the invitation. And foreign affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said he was unaware of any plans to invite Haniyeh to South Africa.
However, South Africa openly endorsed the idea of engagement with Hamas this week when, at a United Nations meeting on Palestine in Pretoria, the Minister in the Presidency, Essop Pahad, urged the international community to ‘give unconditional recognition and engage in dialogue with the Palestinian unity governmentâ€.
Pahad said the conference should aim to ensure the inclusion of Hamas members in a UN meeting and ‘erode the West’s sanctions and isolation strategy and the UN secretariat’s policy of non-engagement with Hamasâ€.
Kasrils invited Haniyeh to South Africa during his recent six-day visit to the Palestinian territories. Haniyeh reportedly accepted the invitation, and one of his aides reportedly said the premier wanted to meet former president Nelson Mandela.
Last Friday, Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Mark Regeve reportedly complained that the invitation would ‘entrench extremist positions†and legitimise Hamas’s ‘unreformed†leadership.
The board of deputies echoed the condemnation in the strongest terms, saying support for Hamas, which ‘describes the Jewish people as fundamentally evil … contradicts both the ideals of South Africa and of the ruling ANC itselfâ€. But Michael Bagraim, its national chairperson, also told the Mail & Guardian this week the board and South African Jews in general supported dialogue with the Palestinian Authority.
He said board members met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas when he visited South Africa in March and April last year. The parties had ‘a very fruitful discussion†despite their disagreements, such as his denial of the Holocaust.
But he insisted Hamas’s position on Israel and Jews undermined peaceful negotiations: ‘I do not negotiate with someone who comes to the table with a loaded gun pointed at me.â€
A foreign affairs statement two days after the uproar over his invitation reports Kasrils as saying: ‘South Africa looks forward to receiving a delegation of the Palestinian National Unity Government led by its prime minister, to South Africa.â€
Abbas was said to have welcomed and endorsed the invitation.