Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 17-01-2017
The Afro-Middle East Centre (AMEC) says the Democratic Alliance (DA) which claims to espouse liberalism and is against human rights violations has lost an opportunity to take the moral high ground by visiting a country that is in gross violation of international law.
A delegation from the DA including leader Mmusi Maimane have visited Israel in what the party claims is to listen and learn about the conflict first hand and to discuss how South Africa should be playing a more constructive role in bringing the parties together for peace.
South Africa’s official opposition party has been heavily criticised for the visit including Maimane who was photographed shaking hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nentanyahu.
AMEC’s Naeem Jeenah say while the DA has voted in favour of a resolution in the 2014 parliamentary portfolio committee on International relations condemning Israel’s human rights violations and international law and even supporting BDS it has missed an opportunity to highlight the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
“By undertaking this trip, they’ve lost that opportunity of being seen to be balanced and even handed and what they are doing is harkening back to the days of Tony Leon as far as this issue is concerned.”
Jeenah criticised the party’s chief whip John Steenhuizen who told Radio Islam on the morning breakfast show today that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a democratically elected leader.
Jeenah says the notion of Netanyahu being a democratically elected leader is exactly the same as saying that FW De Klerk in the Apartheid days was a democratically elected leader of South Africa.
“He was, because in terms of all the whites that voted, but in terms of Israeli citizens that vote, Netanyahu is a democratically leader accept that Israel controls the land from the river to the sea and half of the population doesn’t have the right to vote, they are just under occupation.”
Steenhuizen told Radio Islam that the DA would not apologise for visiting Israel because it wanted to get a more informed opinion about the conflict.
Listen to DA visit to Israel- John Steenhuisen & Naeem Jeena (Debate)
0 Comments