South African government should be condemning, not condoning, Palestinian extremism
The South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) notes that the South African government has jumped on the opportunity to bash Israel for doing what any responsible country would to protect its citizens against senseless terror and violence. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an Iranian-proxy operating in Gaza and the West Bank, has been responsible for horrific terror attacks and murder of hundreds of innocent Israeli citizens over several decades including killing innocent Jews and Arabs at restaurants, buses, markets and other non-military targets. PIJ has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States, European Union, Japan, United Kingdom and others for these unspeakable atrocities. Israel has taken action in the past week to prevent PIJ from carrying out further barbarous acts.
Israel has the moral obligation to defend and protect Israeli citizens against violence, and the South African government should be commending her for acting with utmost restraint and caution to save lives inside Israel as well as minimising Palestinian civilian casualties. Instead, the South African government is predictably taking the wrong side in this conflict by deliberately misconstruing the situation so as to pander and signal to anti-Western sentiments that place our country at odds with the modern world. Not one word has been said by South Africa to condemn PIJ’s double war crimes it commits each time it fires rockets and mortars from civilian areas in Gaza towards civilians in Israel. The South African government deliberately ignores the fact that a high percentage of rockets fired by PIJ are failing on launch, landing in Palestinian areas, and killing innocent Palestinians including children. All innocent loss of life should be prevented and mourned, and South Africa only does this when it is convenient to blame the Jewish State.
We call on the South African government to clarify to the world why it is taking the side of an international pariah organisation responsible for the killings of innocents over a highly responsible and restrained foreign government. We note that not one word of condemnation has been said by our government condemning the brutal war of Russia on Ukraine, nor on numerous other international conflicts. All the opprobrium is singularly reserved for the small state of Israel. Rather than issuing vituperative international statements about Israel, our government should focus on addressing its own domestic failures, including lack of basic care services to millions of destitute South Africans living in poverty, poor sanitation, crime, lack of food, water, housing, electricity, medical services, or employment opportunities.
The SAZF hopes that calm will be restored as soon as possible and that the Palestinian leadership realise that Israel is here to stay, and the solution will not be found in militancy and terror.
