South Africa’s opposition party normalizing Apartheid with Israel
12 January 2017
The Palestine solidarity and human rights organisation BDS South Africa condemns the visit by opposition leader Mmusi Maimane of the Democratic Alliance (DA) to Israel.
In 2009, in a 300-page report commissioned by the SA Government, the SA Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) found that Israel is practicing forms of apartheid. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other human rights groups have subsequently published similar reports, including investigations revealing Israel’s discriminatory policies regarding natural resources and in particular water.
It is in this context that BDS SA and our supporters condemn the cosy-ing up of the DA with the collaborators of our former oppressors. Israel backed and supported Apartheid South Africa with weapons including nuclear weaponry that was used against our people. It speaks volumes that the DA is trying to take us back to Apartheid days by forging relations with countries like Israel and other regimes that backed Apartheid. South African foreign policy, which is to curtail relations with Israel, was articulated by our Deputy Minister of International Realtions in 2012 and by our Minister of International Relations in 2013.