Pro-Israeli supporters turn up en masse at Committee Meeting

As agenda’s go, meetings by parliamentary committees to discuss and finalise an internal report do not rank highly. It is usually a routine and mundane exercise that hardly raises any interest. This theory is however overturned when the report in question deals with the Israel-Palestine conflict.

At a meeting earlier today, the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation was packed with pro-Israeli supporters (members from the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and South African Zionist Federation) which forced proceedings to be shifted to a bigger venue.

Last month, the Committee had organised a conference in support of the people of Palestine, Western Sahara and Cuba under the theme, “Fostering Solidarity to build a just and better world”. The aim of today’s meeting was to consider and adopt the report on that conference. As things turned out, the report, which was adopted despite the objections by the Democratic Alliance, was a damp squib as it merely contained minutes of the Solidarity Conference and did not include any input or recommendations.

All political parties - the ANC, IFP, ACDP and DA – were given an opportunity to provide recommendations at today's meeting, with the majority party proposing that the following recommendations be included:

  • There should be a sovereign Palestinian state established next to the state of Israel according to the 1967 borders
  • ANC reiterates its support for a negotiated settlement
  • ANC encourages sectors of South African population to rally around the Palestinian cause and to continue to intensify solidarity efforts of Palestinian people against their illegal occupation

These recommendations were accepted after a vote - the breakdown was: 7 ANC in favour, 1 ACDP and 2 DA against and 1 IFP abstention.

The current crisis in Ukraine and Russia was also touched in the meeting, with the Chairperson of the Committee saying that “Ukraine is a country that borders Russia and given the history of Eastern Europe and in particular Russia it is a given that it would have a direct national interest vested in Ukraine and be affected more directly than any other country”.

He further argued that “the current signs of military escalation is a worrying factor” and “hopes that both countries can sit down and find a diplomatic solution”.

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