Statement of Joint ANC, United Ulama Council of South Africa, Muslim Judicial Council and SA Friends of Palestine meeting held on 18 December 2023.
The National Officials of the ANC led by President Cyril Ramaphosa this morning met with a delegation of the South African Friends of Palestine as well as the leadership of the Muslim Judicial Council , the United Ulama Council of SA, and the Council of Muslim Theologians, at the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg.
The meeting discussed the historic support of South Africa to the struggle of the people of Palestine as articulated by President Nelson Mandela, that ‘our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of Pales'nians.”
The similarities between the apartheid regimes in South Africa and Israel are indisputable, and hence both must be regarded as a crime against humanity.
The meeting exchanged views on how, as South Africans in civil society and government, we can continue to support the just aspirations of the Palestinian people, especially as they face this genocide unfolding in Gaza over the last weeks.
The ANC, the SA Friends of Palestine, the United Ulama Council of South Africa, the Muslim Judicial Council, and the Palestinian Solidarity Alliance condemned the atrocities that are being committed on a day to day basis against Palestinian people in the occupied territories.
It noted and supports the initiative of the SA government to call on apartheid Israel’s war crimes to be investigated and prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.
Palestinian children are bearing the brunt of this genocide, in a situation that is grossly disproportionate, with a well-resourced army against a people who suffered occupation, exile, repression and oppression unabated for 70 years.
In the words of President Ramaphosa at the meeting, “our support and solidarity with the Palestinian people for justice and self-determination, is irrevocable.”
This includes the right to resistance of the Palestimian people and their organisations.
The meeting discussed a range of measures to continue our solidarity with Palestine, including humanitarian relief, an immediate ceasefire, the boycott, disinvestment and sanctions campaign, the concern about South Africans fighting in the Israel Defence Force against our national laws, and vow to never stop raising awareness and uniting South Africans in solidarity with the Palestnian people.
The ANC will therefore continue to engage with the local Palestinian civil society in a broader follow up meeting early in the new year, so that we work for the total isolation of apartheid Israel.
As the nation prepare for the festibe season, we wish all South Africans safe and blessed holidays.
As we celebrate, let us remember and pray for the people of Palestine and Gaza.
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