By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Over 3,000 persons on Saturday marched through Cape Town, calling on the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa to cut trade and diplomatic ties with Israel, including by shutting its embassy, over its war in Gaza entering its third year.
Pretoria has been a vocal critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, instituting a legal action before the international court in December 2023 where it argued that Israel’s war in the Palestinian territory amounts to genocide.
The protest on Saturday brought together several pro-Palestinian organisations, political parties, and Muslim and Christian groups in one of the largest of such turnouts in recent months.
Waving Palestinian flags and slogans such as “Don’t just feel bad, do something”, the procession handed over a petition of demands at parliament.
South Africa must “boycott, divest and sanction Israel, the same way as the world did for us,” said Palestine Solidarity Campaign coordinator, Usuf Chikte, referring to international measures used to pressure South Africa’s apartheid regime.
The government has to take action on the “kicking out of Israel’s ambassador and embassy from South Africa now,” and the country should be excluded from international sporting bodies such as FIFA, he told the crowd.
The petition also demanded that the government suspend its exports of coal to Israel and prosecute any South Africans who enlist in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).
The war in Gaza broke out after Palestinian militants led by Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has since killed at least 65,926 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, figures the United Nations deems reliable.
