POLITICS

DA confirmed a meeting with Abbas – Phumzile Van Damme

DA says Embassy should have contacted them before releasing false public statement

Embassy of the Palestinian Authority statement unfortunate and inaccurate

16 January 2017

The statement released today by the Embassy of the Palestinian Authority, and hurriedly echoed by the ANC, is simply inaccurate and most unfortunate. The DA understands that the Embassy had not been given a full briefing by their government, but we would have preferred for them to contact us, or indeed their own principals, before releasing a false public statement.

The DA had a confirmed meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mr Mahmoud Abbas, and had informed South Africa’s Embassy in Ramallah of the meeting, and had invited South Africa’s ambassador to join the meeting. This is incontrovertible, and we include the full trail of correspondence and record of contact with President Abbas’ office, and the SA Embassy in Ramallah, below here.

We visited the Palestinian Territories, met with human rights activists, visited refugees in Ramallah, and met with leaders of the business community and investors who are building the new Palestine despite the ongoing conflict.

We did not inform the Palestinian Authority embassy in South Africa before our visit, we were not required to do so as South Africans do not require visas in order to visit the region. We communicated directly with the President's office.

However, it is revealing that the Embassy’s statement says that there was an instruction issued not to meet with the DA. We will certainly be following up with them to ascertain exactly who issued this instruction, as it was not conveyed to us at any point.

Lastly, the DA delegation was delighted to learn that the SA Department of Water Affairs sent an official delegation to Israel in mid-November 2016 and that this delegation did not visit the Palestinian Territories at all, as would have been most appropriate.

We are not perturbed by manufactured outrage about the DA playing a leadership role in the foreign affairs vacuum left by the ANC. But we will not allow falsehoods to go unchallenged. It's critical if South Africa is to play a constructive role that facts and not propaganda become the central aspects of the discussion.

We remain committed to a two state solution and believe that South Africa should play a much more constructive role in bringing the conflicted parties together to talk and negotiate a peaceful settlement.

Timeline of Contact:

January 2:

Phone conversation with the Director of Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas's Protocol Office. Verbal request for official address to pass on written request - an email was provided.

Email and official letter to Chief Protocol Officer, Neveen Sarraj, with a meeting request to

meet with President Abbas (see below).

Phone confirmation that the protocol office received the request. They then requested that the South African Permanent Mission in Ramallah be contacted to receive their blessing for the meeting.

Phone discussion with Daniel Stemmerd at the South African mission in Ramallah, and email sent to request they reach out to the President's protocol office (see below) and inviting the SA ambassador to attend the meeting with Mr Maimane. Mr Stemmerd indicated that the SA Ambassador is not available to join the meeting, and so the Political Counsellor was invited instead.

January 3:

Email received from Daniel at the SA mission that the issue was receiving attention (see below).

Jan 4:

Email to Chief of Protocol office asking for update after SA mission contacted them (see below).

Phone discussion with the Protocol Office asking for an update. Response was that the Chief Protocol Officer was out of the office, in Bethlehem, but he was working on locking down a time for the meeting with President Abbas and Mr Maimane.

Jan 5. - 8:

Multiple phone discussions between the President's protocol office and the tour organizers confirming the meeting and the time.

Jan 9 (day of proposed meeting):

Phone call from President Abba's protocol office at roughly 9am, (phone number available) indicating that the meeting had to be cancelled as the President had a scheduling conflict and was not available any other time during the week for a meeting. We then requested a different representative to meet with Mr Maimane, they said they could not think of anyone, so we requested permission to reach out to Chief Negotiator Said Erekat.

Contacted Mr Said Erekat's office and was informed that he was going to be out of the country, and not available to meet.

Issued by Phumzile Van Damme, DA National Spokesperson, 16 January 2017