By Hassan Isilow
JOHANNESBURG
South African activists are calling for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador over Israel's ongoing military onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
"We call upon the South African government to first recall our ambassador from Tel Aviv and then expel the Israeli ambassador from South Africa," Ibrahim Vawda, senior researcher for the Media Review Network, an advocacy group, told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.
He said the South African government should take firm action against Israel for the crimes it was committing against Palestinians.
"The South African government should be at the forefront of calling for international sanctions and supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) [campaign] against Israel," he added.
"We would not have succeeded in stamping out apartheid if we did not have the support of the international community," noted Vawdwa.
At least 81 Palestinians – mostly civilians – have been killed since Monday in a series of Israeli airstrikes.
According to Palestinian security sources, Israeli warplanes have carried out more than 770 airstrikes against targets in Gaza over the same period.
Israel says its military offensive – dubbed "Operation Protective Edge" – is aimed at ending rocket fire from Gaza.
South Africa's ruling party on Thursday denounced the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, urging South Africans to protest Israeli aggression and show their solidarity with the Palestinian people.
"The African National Congress (ANC) condemns in the strongest terms the barbaric attacks on the defenseless Palestinian people of Gaza," ANC Deputy Secretary-General Jessie Duarte said in a statement.
"The collective punishment and illegal siege of the Palestinian people of Gaza must immediately end," it added.
-Isolate Israel-
Naazim Adam of the Palestine Solidarity Alliance said his organization supported calls to sever diplomatic ties with the self-proclaimed Jewish state.
"We can't continue having relations with an apartheid state such as Israel," he told AA.
Adam said his organization planned to stage demonstrations on Sunday in Lenasia, south of Johannesburg, to protest Israel's ongoing onslaught on Gaza.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), for its part, issued similar calls.
"We support the call to recall the South African ambassador [from Israel], kick out the Israeli ambassador from South Africa, and move with speed to decisively isolate Israel and all who sympathize with racism and Zionist occupation," it said in a statement.
COSATU added that it was now time for the world to move beyond mere words of pity and take action – as it did with apartheid South Africa when the latter's policies were declared crimes against humanity.
"Apartheid remains a crime against humanity, wherever it happens. If apartheid can't outrage us, our humanity is called into question," the organization asserted.
On Friday, the South African chapter of the BDS campaign will hold a solidarity protest vigil outside the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO)'s head office in Pretoria.
"The protest vigil will call on DIRCO and the South African government to immediately withdraw the South African ambassador in Tel Aviv and expel the Israeli ambassador in South Africa," said BDS South Africa's Mohamed Desai.
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