ANC failure to condemn Hamas beyond belief
10 October 2023
It was sickening to hear Deputy Minister Obed Bapela this morning on SAFM, being interviewed by Stephen Grootes, as he winced and wavered in order to avoid expressing his regrets at the senseless massacres of Israeli civilians. His ignorance of the history of the conflict was manifest, when he blamed Israel for contemptuously disregarding the “agreement” of 1967, creating a Palestinian state.
I have no idea what agreement he was referring to, when the official response from the Arab side was the infamous Khartoum Resolution in September 1967 declaring superciliously the three no’s; “No peace with Israel, No negotiation with Israel and No recognition of Israel.”
Palestinian haughtiness, or refusal to accept any opportunities to create a Palestinian state has been the root cause of Palestinian statelessness. In 1936, following the Peel report, Palestinians were offered more than 80 per cent of the land currently controlled by Israel. The Jews accepted, the Arabs rejected.
In 1947 the United Nations offered the Palestinians nearly 50% of the land, which included most of the Galilee and the most fertile areas and again they rejected the opportunity of statehood. Instead they choose war. A war fought with 5 Arab armies that they envisioned would end the Jewish presence in “Palestine”.
In 2000 under President Clinton’s presidency, Arafat again rejected Ehud Barak’s offer of Palestinian statehood with East Jerusalem as its capital and 95% of the West Bank. A few years later Prime Minister Ehud Olmert improved the offer to compensate land exchanges from Israeli territory and East Jerusalem, only to suffer the same rejections from Palestinian leadership.
I will state unequivocally that no people have been offered more opportunities to have a state of their own than the Palestinians, which prompted Abba Eban to say; “They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity”.
Contrast the condemnation by South Africa of Israel when one three-year-old Muhammid Tamimi was allegedly killed by the Israeli army, calling for a day to be named after Tamimi during Child Protection week to the utter disregard for the hundreds of Israeli children that have either been killed, tortured or kidnapped by Hamas recently.
ANC National spokesperson,Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri unashamedly blamed Israel for the recent violence saying that the inhuman actions of the Hamas militants were “unsurprising”. She justified the ANC stance as follows: “The ANC stands with the people of occupied Palestine as it is clear that the degenerating security situation is directly linked to the unlawful Israeli occupation.”
Contrast this to the reality that there is not one Israeli soldier or settler occupying even one centimetre of Gaza. In 2005 Israel withdrew every farmer out of Gaza and left it with a functioning infrastructure which included a hospital that Israel erected. What happened next was a catastrophe for the citizens of Gaza, Israel and the Neighbourhood-Gazans in the only elections that they’ve held elected Hamas into power.
Hamas is a genocidal, maniacal organization obsessed only with the complete an utter destruction of Israel and the killing of every Jew. (See Article 7 of their Charter.) Israel on the other hand provides Gazans with life sustaining water, electricity and food. Israel too allows huge amounts of cash and money to be distributed and sent to Gazans.
Understandably Israel tries to restrict what passes through its border crossings to Gaza to prevent material that can be used to make bombs and missiles and dig tunnels. The fact that tens of thousands of missiles have been able to be imported through the border crossings and fabricated locally, speaks of the leniency of Israel’s controls.
Unequivocally, never has so much international funding been provided to any stateless actor or people as has been bestowed on the Palestinians
As with the continuous failure of the ANC or the South African government to condemn Russia for its gratuitous and unjustified invasion of Ukraine, South African politicians have once again failed the test of common decency and humanity by failing to condemn the barbarity of Hamas and for its double standards by not regarding the deaths or kidnappings of Israelis as being worthy of any comment or concern.
Ben Levitas
