Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 12-06-2018
While Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba has suspended one of his councillors for publicly declaring that the city is a friend of Israel, the Democratic Alliance (DA) stance on the Palestinian struggle is questionable.
Health and Social Development MMC Mpho Phalatse made the comments at the South African Friend of Israel national conference at the weekend.
“I am a friend of Israel and the City of Johannesburg is a friend of Israel.”
Mashaba says he was disappointed that the councillor attributed her personal remarks to the city.
“It is for this reason, that I have taken the decision to suspend MMC Phalatse pending an investigation into the full and proper context in which those remarks were aired.”
But concerns and questions have been raised before about whether the DA has a “romantic relationship” with Israel and Zionists.
This was highlighted by the former President of the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) Moulana Ighsaan Hendricks who spoke to Radio Islam about the current crisis in Gaza last month.
Ml Hendricks said the South African community is politically matured enough to understand that they should not tolerate opposition coming from DA, a party whose defied the South African government.
“What is the love relationship, is there a romantic relationship between the Democratic Alliance of South Africa and the rogue state of Israel and the Zionists? Examine that type of romantic relationship and see where this relationship is going to take future aspirations for such people in South Africa.”
The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation’s Neeshan Balton also urged the DA to clarify their position on the Palestinian issue after the party shadow minister of international relations Stevens Mokgalapa said South Africa made a mistake in recalling South Africa’s ambassador to Israel Sisa Ngombane.
“They should have instead been seeing this in a positive light and then indicating what they think must be done in those specific areas that they are concerned about. But more importantly they need to say themselves what their position is on any of those particular areas.”
But the DA’s leader Mmusi Maimane also came under fire after he was photographed smiling and shaking the hands of controversial Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu in 2017.
The South African Jewish Report (SAJR) published an article detailing the DA’s visit to Israel which included Maimane, Chief Whip John Steenhuisen, spokesperson on trade and industry, Geordin Hill-Lewis and Michael Bagraim, a DA MP and former National President of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies.
They were accompanied by Alan Fischer, a representative of South African Jewish organisations.
This prompted former Israeli Ambassador to South Africa Arthur Lenk to congratulated Maimane on his visit to Israel. “Welcome to Israel, Honorable Maimane,” he tweeted.
Zionist grouping, South African Friends of Israel (SAFI) also commended Maimane for his willingness to visit Israel.
“Mr Maimane has shown vision and courage in these times of great slander against of the State of Israel. He has embodied the true South African values of dialogue and engagement by his willingness to hear different voices,” SAFI said in a press release.
If that’s not enough, in 2015, the ‘special’ treatment that DA MP and member of the federal executive Yusuf Cassim received from Ben Gurion Airport security on his recent educational visit to Israel raised questions about the ‘friendly relationship of South Africa’s official opposition party with Israel.
In a letter to Ben Gurion Airport security, Michael Freeman, deputy Israeli ambassador to South Africa, wrote: “We implore you to treat Mr. Yusuf Cassim with generosity and respect during the security checks. Please pass it along to all security officials to check Mr. Yusuf Cassim in a way that will leave a good impression and preserve the good relations between the DA [Democratic Alliance, Cassim’s party] and Israel.”
Cassim said he did not receive the ‘special treatment’ as requested by deputy Israeli ambassador to South Africa Michael Freeman. “I didn’t use that letter until my very last when I was exiting the country at Ben Gurion Airport.
“I was actually going to miss my flight because of the way that I believe I was targeted and it was clear racial profiling that was taking place, being stopped even before going into the airport and being interrogated and searched and having my bags turned inside and out.”
The DA has been criticized on numerous instances for not taking a stance on the Palestinian issue but rather fence sitting.
In 2013, a mural painted by well-known graffiti artist, Iain “Ewok” Robinson, at the Durban North Beach Skate Board Park during Israeli Aprtheid Week (IAW) irked a DA councillor Avrille Marcia Coen to argue that the usage of the term ‘apartheid’ in relation to Israel constitutes ‘hate speech’.
While the party maintains that they are neither pro-Israeli, neither pro-Palestinian but pro-peace and would like to see a negotiated settlement between both sides, the African National Congress (ANC) has a long standing record in their contribution towards the Palestinian struggle for freedom and liberation.
Rather than tension and misgivings simmering under the surface, the DA’s explicitness in their ‘neutral’ stance toward the struggle of the Palestinian people, a struggle that is not religious, but universal, South African voters are in the powerful position to force the party to alter their policy toward neutrality. Fence sitting is an overt way to rationalize Israel’s racist laws and practices.
Those who oppose Israel being called an apartheid state say that Israel is no way representative of what South African’s underwent during apartheid. However, as mentioned by Judy Rebick, a country doesn’t have to be exactly like South Africa to be characterized as an apartheid state, any more than a fascist state has to be exactly like Italy in the 1930’s. If there are certain characteristics that define apartheid, Israel meets the vast majority of them.
The United Nations General Assembly passed the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, which provides a useful definition that includes the phrase, “an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group.”
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