SACP condemns closure of the Rafah border and continuing apartheid Israeli settler state genocide on Palestinians, calls for a complete cut-off of ties with the Israeli regime and prosecutions to ensure justice for the Palestinian people

7 May 2024

The South African Communist Party (SACP) strongly condemns the storming of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt at dawn on Tuesday, 7 May 2024, by the apartheid Israeli settler state. “We are calling for comprehensive international isolation of the Israeli setter state in every aspect of international relations and co-operation.

To ensure accountability and justice for the Palestinian people, the leaders of the apartheid Israeli settler state who have ordered and have been presiding over the genocide since it started must face arrest and prosecution at an international level. So must the citizens of every other country who are involved in the Israeli army and its genocidal campaign”, said the SACP General Secretary Solly Mapaila in denouncing the escalation, which dangerously targets a civilian population protected by international law.

Mapaila emphasised the importance of an immediate permanent ceasefire. We stand for the freedom of historical Palestine and reiterate our solidarity with the Palestinian people in their just struggle against colonial occupation, land expropriation and other injustices. The SACP reiterates its call for a complete cut-off of ties with the apartheid Israeli settler state, a regime which has defied the International Court of Justice and the United Nations.   

Since October 2023, the Israeli settler state has killed over 34,600 Palestinians, of whom 75 per cent are children, women and elderly people. Children make up over 14,800 while women make up over 9,800 of the victims.

The Israeli regime has been carrying out the genocide by other merciless methods, including starving the targeted population of food, blocking humanitarian aid and depriving the victims of healthcare. By closing the border and the Gaza strip, the Israeli regime is intensifying its continued prevention of the flow of emergency relief to the Palestinian people who it has besieged. The apartheid Israeli settler state has destroyed water, healthcare, education, roads, sanitation and other infrastructure.

Issued by SACP, 7 May 2024