BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS in SOUTH AFRICA (BDS SOUTH AFRICA)
Office 915 | 9th Floor | Khotso House | 62 Marshall Street | Johannesburg
PO Box 2318 | Houghton | 2041 | Johannesburg
T: +27 (0) 11 492 2414 | F: +27 (0) 86 650 4836
W: www.bdssouthafrica.com | E: administrator@bdssouthafrica.com
www.facebook.com/bdssouthafrica | www.twitter.com/bdssouthafrica

BDS South Africa is a registered Non-Profit Organization. NPO NUMBER: 084 306 NPO
BDS South Africa is a registered Public Benefit Organisation with Section 18A status. PBO NUMBER: 930 037 446

 

 

Last week, on Wednesday the 14th of November, in clear violation of a truce that had just been agreed to, Israel carried out an extra-judicial assassination of Palestinian political activist and member of Hamas, Ahmed Jabari. Only hours before his death, Jabari intended and was in the process of finalizing a long-term ceasefire peace agreement with Israel. Lat year, Jabari gained wide popularity due to the central role he played in the Palestinian-Israeli prisoner exchange where he oversaw the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, in fact, Jabari personally escorted Shalit during the exchange.

Since Wednesday and the illegal assassination of Jabari, Israel has subsequently embarked on a full-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip killing over 100 people, including 30 children and a pregnant woman with her unborn twins. In addition, more than 600 civilians have been wounded. On Sunday the 18th of November, marking the deadliest single Israeli attack, 10 members of one family were killed in an Israeli air-strike on the Palestinian home of the Al-Dula family. The dead include 4 children (who were 2 to 5 years ), their mother, an aunt, a cousin, an 81 year old grandmother as well as two neighbors. (Find a Los Angeles Times news report here: http://tinyurl.com/d4p7j45 )

 

Even at the height of Apartheid in South Africa we didn't have F16 fighter-jets, military tanks or ground incursions on the scale that the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are currently experiencing. These sort of Israeli attacks tragically confirm the position of the African National Congress (ANC) chairperson, Baleka Mbete, who said at the October ANC International Solidarity Conference that the situation of the Palestinians is "far worse" than the conditions were under apartheid.

 

The recent ANC National Policy Conference in June was also very clear that the "ANC is unequivocal in its support for the Palestinian people in their struggle for self-determination, and unapologetic in its view that the Palestinians are the victims and the oppressed in the conflict with Israel." In line with this ANC position (South Africa's ruling party) and in protest of Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip, we are calling on the South African government to: A) Immediately recall the South African ambassador from Tel Aviv; B) Expel the Israeli ambassador from Pretoria; and, C) Impose broad-based boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) on Israel until it ends its violence against the Palestinian people, abides to international law and respects human rights.