ANC pledges solidarity with Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) on the 75th anniversary of Nakba, the catastrophic expulsion of Palestinians
15 May 2023
A high-level delegation from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) led by veteran PLO Central Committee member, Dr Faisal Aranki visited the ANC Headquarters in Johannesburg on Friday, 12 May 2023. The delegation was received by ANC First Deputy Secretary General and Head of International Relations, Comrade Nomvula Mokonyane.
The PLO delegation is in South Africa to mobilize solidarity as the world commemorates 75 years since the Nakba (which means catastrophe in Arabic) when three quarters of Palestinians were violently expelled from their homes, destroying over 500 villages during the formation of the state of Israel in 1948.
Seventy five years later, the lives of Palestinian people continue to be of misery and oppression, being a nation forced into ever smaller ghettos in occupied areas, generations growing up in refugee camps and stateless, aggressive dispossession of Palestinian land and properties, systematic and widespread abuse of Palestinian human rights including imprisonment and killings, and the institutionalization of apartheid Israel.
This is in flagrant violation of UN Resolution 181, adopted in 1947, that provides for a Palestinian state, as well as the state of Israel. Despite this resolution, Israel has consistently undermined and violated the right of the Palestinians to a sovereign state. "Even the Oslo Peace Accords of 1994", said Dr Aranki, "which saw an attempt to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict, have been systematically and deliberately violated and decimated by the Israeli state. Instead, it has consolidated Israel into an Apartheid state, violating the rights not only of Palestinians, but also interfering in the right of worship of Christians and Muslims alike.
The PLO delegation recalled the decades of solidarity not only between the ANC and the PLO, but also between the peoples of South Africa and Palestine. South Africa earlier this year played a critical role in mobilizing support for the African Union Summit to suspend the decision of the Commission to allow Israel observer status in the Al-J.
The PLO delegation will travel to Cape Town this weekend, and on Sunday 14 May 2023 participate in the photo exhibition at St George's Cathedral at 15:00, "Existence is Resistance" by Jimmi Matthews, where Palestinian Ambassador to South Africa, HE Hanan Jarrar will pay a special tribute to journalist Shireen Abu Akehh, who was killed on duty by Israeli soldiers.
On Monday, 15 May 2023, a 75th Nakba Day commemoration march will commence at 10:00 in Hanover Street, Cape Town and proceed to Parliament, where various speakers will address. The ANC alongside its Alliance partners, COSATU and SACP, working with other organizations will mobilize for this event, as an expression of our continued and unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people.
The PLO and ANC delegation in their meeting at Luthuli House recalled, and reiterated the words of President Nelson Mandela when he said: 'We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.'
Issued by Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, National Spokesperson, 15 May 2023
