COSATU condemns massacre of Palestinian children by Israel in Gaza – Supports recall of SA Ambassador by our Government led by the ANC

15 May 2018

COSATU is extremely horrified by the unbelievable barbarism of Israel against the Palestinian people. The ruthless massacre of innocent children, women and ordinary Palestinians in Gaza represents the continuation of the colonial, apartheid and racist policy of occupation against the Palestinians.

The genocidal attacks by the Israeli Defence Force in Gaza and the simultaneous recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, are a gross violation of International law and the intensification of the occupation.

COSATU has and continues to be vocal against the apartheid rule of Israel, supported by the US in its brutal annexation of lands of other people; from the Golan Heights in Syria to the whole of Palestine to Lebanon.

The horrifying pictures of unarmed civilians being shot and killed shocked the Doctors Without Borders who remarked, “It is unbearable to watch such a massive number of unarmed People being shot”

COSATU calls on all workers, activists, political movements, social justice organisations, religious and cultural communities, as well as all peace-loving people to join the Great march tomorrow in Cape Town marking Nakba day, which shall be at 2pm till 5pm.

We firmly welcome and support the South African government for acting decisively and recalling our Ambassador to Israel by our government led by the ANC, with immediate effect, as an expression of both outrage and solidarity to isolate the apartheid state of Israel. We call on all other countries, particularly BRICS, G77, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and AU member states to also isolate the colonial occupying state of Israel.

We are saddened by the complicity and silence of the western world and its “vibrant democracies and independent media and civil society”, save for a few consistent campaigners whose voice is drowned by the support granted to Israel by western countries in return for their economic and self-serving interests.

The world must stop being hypocritical and call Israel for what it is, an apartheid colonial state that murders children and women, steal the land of the indigenous people of Palestine, as well as controls US Foreign Policy and mainstream international media to spread lies and distortions about the reality of the horror in the Middle East. The shame of the so-called civilised world in our era.

Issued by Sizwe Pamla, National Spokesperson, COSATU, 15 May 2018