While the ANC agrees with Julius Malema’s party that the Israeli embassy in Pretoria should be closed, it is unlikely this will be the government’s position.
An insider told the Sunday Times the possibility of cutting ties with Israel was debated at length during a cabinet meeting on November 1 but was rejected.
This comes as South Africa led several other countries this week in lodging a formal International Criminal Court war crimes complaint against Israeli leaders for their offensive in Gaza. The Sunday Times understands the ANC is unlikely to support an EFF motion on Tuesday to close the Israeli embassy. Instead, it is likely to propose an amended motion that stops short of cutting all ties with Tel Aviv.
“There were very strong voices in cabinet that we should close our embassy [in Tel Aviv] permanently and cut diplomatic ties,” the insider said. “Dirco [the department of international relations & co-operation] responded and showed them why that would be to the detriment not only of our economy, at so many levels, but also that it doesn’t even help the people of Palestine.”
The insider said in matters of foreign policy, “despite the popular rhetoric, you have to do everything from a national interest point of view. Even if it means looking weak temporarily, but you can’t compromise what would serve the interests of this country, and the people of this country, just so that you appear popular.”
Dirco officials argued that South Africa was one of the few countries that could try to bring the warring parties in the Middle East together to negotiate all the things “we are calling for”, including a two-state solution.
If you cut diplomatic ties with Israel as South Africa, they no longer have to engage with you or listen to you, and that excludes you from being part of a process of solution
— Insider
“If you cut diplomatic ties with Israel as South Africa, they no longer have to engage with you or listen to you, and that excludes you from being part of a process of solution,” the insider said.
Another insider said the cabinet had been told that Palestinians themselves had urged Pretoria not to cut diplomatic ties with Israel because that would doom any chance that South Africa could intercede with the Jewish state.
The cabinet was reminded that South Africa would immediately earn the ire of the US if it cut ties with Israel, and that would harm South Africa’s poor.
“[Dirco] said, ‘you don’t want to do that because we know what the US can do.’ You are not just dealing with Israel but the big brother that stands behind Israel on every issue, which is why the UN Security Council is powerless to do anything because the US will veto anything when it comes to Israel.”
The Sunday Times has learnt that the recall of South Africa’s diplomats from Tel Aviv earlier this month to show disapproval of Israel’s actions in Gaza was a compromise agreed by cabinet hardliners who had wanted much tougher action.
One of the ANC insiders said the ANC’s support for the EFF motion had an important qualification: diplomatic ties would remain cut “until Israel agrees to a ceasefire and commits to binding UN-facilitated negotiations whose outcome must be a just, sustainable and lasting peace”.
The ANC therefore was not backing a permanent break with the Jewish state.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said yesterday South Africa had joined in lodging the war crimes complaint at the ICC as part of a process “aimed at highlighting issues of concern about Israel’s conduct”.
South Africa, along with Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros and Djibouti, asked chief ICC prosecutor Karim Khan in a letter to launch an investigation against Israeli leaders for expressing “intent of committing genocide” and committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The letter, delivered to Khan in The Hague, cited “intentional” attacks on civilians, the destruction of public facilities including hospitals, and attacks on religious sites, but also went into the history of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
In the letter, the government said the ICC should probe whether one or more specific persons should be charged with the commission of such crimes.
The letter cited Israel’s “forcible transfer of Palestinians, including by means of violence, compulsion and duress and the creation of inhumane living conditions. The unlawful transfer of the Israeli occupying power’s population into occupied Palestinian territory and the murders and unlawful attacks on civilians, including through excessive use of force and unlawful killings of Palestinians, including demonstrators exercising their right to protest”.
The letter accuses the Jewish state of torture, cruel and inhumane treatment of Palestinians and the “widespread and systemic denial or violation of basic human rights on discriminatory grounds against Palestinians … [and] the repopulation of ‘cleansed’ territories with Israeli settlers and the unlawful appropriation of Palestinian land and properties”.
This amounted to the establishment of a system of apartheid, the letter said, “accompanied by the systematic oppression and domination by Israeli settlers over Palestinians”.
The letter referred to a UN General Assembly resolution last month that accused Israel of violence aimed at civilians and a “lack of proportionality and precaution in the conduct of hostilities”.
Public statements had been made by officials, leaders and persons of authority of the Israeli government and military “expressing the intent of committing genocide”, the letter said.
Both Ramaphosa and Dirco minister Naledi Pandor have previously called for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
This week the fighting in Gaza claimed the life of the head of Gift of the Givers in the territory, Ahmed Abbasi. Dirco said Abbasi had been targeted by the Israeli Defence Force while returning from morning prayers. His brother was also killed.
Both the Palestinian ambassador to South Africa, Hanan Jarrar, and her Israeli counterpart Eliav Belotserkovsky have declined to comment on the letter to the ICC. Khan on Friday confirmed that his office had received it.
Yesterday the Israeli Defence Force intensified its offensive in Gaza, launching air strikes in the Jabali refugee camp in northern Gaza. The Al-Shafa hospital was evacuated yesterday amid fears that the Israeli military was about to attack it.
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