Cii News  19 October 2015

“#‎HamasInSA‬ – another disgrace from South Africa’s ‪#‎ANC‬ government and a slap in the face for ‪#‎Jews‬ and peace seeking people”.

This is how pro-Zionist South African social media account, Spotlighting, has summarized the ANC’s hosting of a senior delegation of Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in the country.

“By providing material support to a UNSC banned terrorist group. The SA Gov runs the risk of intl sanction,” Zionist Robert Broll wrote on Twitter.

The ruling party yesterday welcomed the delegation which comprises senior Hamas leaders Khaled Meshaal, Moosa Abou Marzouq and Mohammed Nazzal.

On Monday, the delegation met with South African and ANC President Jacob Zuma at Luthuli House where a Memorandum of Intent was signed between the two parties.

The Hamas members will also engage with civil society groupings and meet with the international relations committee in parliament during their brief stay.

The South African Zionist Federation(SAZF) today condemned the visit “in the strongest terms possible”.

“During these past few weeks of barbaric violence targeting Israel, Hamas has enthusiastically endorsed the cold-blooded murder of Israeli civilians and instigated dozens of lethal attacks against them. The SA Zionist Federation (SAZF) condemns in the strongest terms possible the fact that a delegation representing the Hamas Central Committee will be visiting South Africa as the honoured guests of the ruling party,” the SAZF’s Avrom Krengel said in a statement.

“Contrary to what is claimed, the ideology, values, aims and strategies of Hamas are diametrically opposed to the principles of the ANC, as embodied in the Freedom Charter. At its recent National General Council, the ANC reaffirmed its support for a negotiated, two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hamas, by contrast, does not support, nor has it ever supported, the creation of an independent Palestinian state co-existing in peace alongside Israel. Instead, its charter explicitly stipulates that no negotiated settlement is possible in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians with Jihad being the only solution. Simply speaking, Hamas wishes to destroy Israel altogether and seeks to establish an Islamist dictatorship in its place,” the statement continued.

In a train of argument followed throughout the day by several other Zionist commentators who likened Hamas to ISIS, the Zionist body argued that, no less than Boko Haram and Al Shabab, Hamas was “an Islamist extremist movement committed to extending the global Islamic Caliphate through radical violent means to every inch of Israel and beyond.”

“In the kind of state it envisages, there would be no room for the human values of democracy, freedom of religion and gender equality,” it claimed.

Israeli reaction

News of the visit has filtered through to Israel, where the Jerusalem Post reported Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon as saying that the Foreign Ministry had called in South Africa’s deputy ambassador to protest the visit.

The invitation to Mashaal to visit, he said “gives support and encouragement for terrorism and pointedly ignores the position of the international community, which views Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The lead paragraph of the Jerusalem Post story on the subject, this evening linked the visit to current developments in the latest Palestinian Intifada:

“On the same day that the Israeli media reported Hamas calling on its members to carry out suicide bombings against Israelis, South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) Party hosted Hamas head Khaled Mashaal in a move that infuriated Jerusalem,” it reported.

“Sadly our government are turning away real freedom fighters like the Dalai Lama and trying to prevent our politicians from travelling to Israel to witness first hand findings. Freedom of speech is a right that should be granted to all in the hope for peaceful negotiations. Providing a platform for terrorist only is not the answer!!!” the South African Zionist Federation protested further on its official Facebook page.

Reaction

Whilst the ANC have not yet responded to the Zionist protests, Secretary General of the Party Gwede Mantashe told the media earlier that the ANC would always stand on the side of the oppressed.

The Memorandum of Intent signed by President Zuma this morning had formalised the relationship of the ANC with Hamas and laid the ground for future constructive engagement.

Mantashe affirmed that the ANC advisory of discouraging government officials from travelling to Israel remained in place as did its stance urging the boycott of Israeli settlement goods.

The secretary general emphasized that the ANC would not dictate the tactics of struggle to Palestinians, but urged Palestinian factions to unite in confronting Israeli aggression.

“Our interactions with Hamas and other Palestinian factions will inform our official policies on the conflict,” he said.

For his part, Khaled Meshaal said that whilst the agreement signed today did not make any demands on the ANC, he was confident that the ANC would do the right thing in assisting the Palestinians.

Meshaal said Hamas was in South Africa to learn from the tactics of the ANC and others in confronting and defeating the South African brand of Apartheid.

Responding to a question probing Hamas’ official stance on groups such as ISIS, Meshaal responded by reiterating the resistance movement’s stance against the killing of innocents and extremism of any kind.

“We represent the middle way of Islam..Israel, however is a leader in extremism”.

Mashaal proceeded to highlight how Hamas only targeted and killed Israeli soldiers during the 2014 Israeli aggression on Gaza, juxtaposed with the heavy civilian toll inflicted by Israel. He further reported on how Palestinians recently left the children of an armed Israeli settler unscathed in a resistance operation.