South Africa's parliament votes in favor of downgrading the country's relations with the Israeli regime in solidarity with Palestinians.
The legislature voted on a relevant draft resolution on Tuesday, the London-based Middle East Eye news and analysis website reported.
The draft resolution had been introduced by the National Freedom Party (NFP) mandating the downgrading of the country's embassy in the occupied territories given the regime's ongoing abuses against Palestinians.
The NFP released a statement, saying such a move would have been supported by the country's late anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela.
"This is a moment [Mandela] would be proud of. He always said our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of Palestinians," read the statement.
The Israeli regime "was built through the displacement, murder, and maiming of Palestinians. And to maintain their grip on power, they have instituted apartheid to control and manage Palestinians," the statement noted.
"As South Africans, we refuse to stand by while apartheid is being perpetrated again."
The Israeli regime claimed existence in 1948 after occupying huge swathes of Palestinian territories during a Western-backed war.
It occupied more land, namely the West Bank, including East al-Quds, and the Gaza Strip, in another such war in 1967. The regime withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but has been keeping the coastal sliver under routine deadly attacks and a crippling siege.
Ever since 1967, Tel Aviv has built hundreds of settlements upon the overrun territories and deployed the most aggressive restrictions on the movements of Palestinians there.
South Africa established close ties with the Israeli regime during the apartheid era, but after the collapse of the discriminatory system, the African country began to lean towards Palestine.
In 2019, South Africa downgraded its relations with Tel Aviv in reaction to the regime's deadly atrocities against the people of Gaza. The move saw Pretoria demoting its diplomatic mission in the occupied territories into a liaison office with limited functionality, returning its ambassador, and refusing to send the envoy back for four months.
In February, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor expressed hope for a "direct action" against the regime in Tel Aviv for its "well-documented apartheid practices."
Also last month, South Africa’s governing African National Congress party welcomed the "encouraging" expulsion of a senior Israeli diplomat from the African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa.
The incident saw an Israeli observer delegation at the African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital being expelled from the opening ceremony after representatives from South Africa and Algeria reportedly objected to the presence of diplomats from the apartheid Tel Aviv regime in the event.
The Israeli regime showed a fiery reaction to the incident that has gone viral across social media showing security guards approaching the Israeli delegates and escorting them out after several minutes of argument.
The regime accused what it called a "small number of extremist states like Algeria and South Africa" of being behind the move.
South Africa, however, roundly rejected the claim, saying Tel Aviv's application for observer status at the AU had not been decided upon by the bloc.
"Until the AU takes a decision on whether to grant Israel observer status," it cannot have the regime "sitting and observing," Clayson Monyela, head of the public diplomacy in South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation, told Reuters at the time.
"So, it's not about South Africa or Algeria, it's an issue of principle," he added.
The African Union later said Israel's observer status at the 55-nation bloc had been suspended, adding that the regime had not been invited to the union's summit from which its delegation was kicked out.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/03/07/699487/South-Africa-relations-Israel-downgraded
Volker Turk has warned that efforts to advance reparatory justice are facing resistance in “certain quarters,” and urged countries to back Africa’s push.
Reparatory justice for historical crimes, including colonialism, enslavement, and the trade in enslaved Africans, is crucial to dismantling systemic racism, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said.
Speaking at the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent on Tuesday, Turk linked present-day discrimination against people from the continent to the enduring legacy of colonialism and enslavement.
”Racism and dehumanizing rhetoric continue to permeate public institutions, communities, and online platforms,” he said, according to the UN Press Service. Turk noted that “digital technologies, including AI, are reproducing and amplifying existing biases against people of African descent.”
The remarks come weeks after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade “the gravest...
The US VP had to defend President Trump’s Gaza policy at a rally on a Georgia college campus.
US Vice President J.D. Vance was forced to defend Washington’s policy in Gaza after he was booed and heckled at a key MAGA event on Wednesday.
Co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is a conservative student group that has long been seen as a strong support base of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement but is now showing apparent cracks.
Less than 15 minutes into a TPUSA event at the University of Georgia on Wednesday, Vance was interrupted by hecklers over US policy in Gaza, with one audience member shouting, “Jesus Christ does not support genocide!” As he attempted to respond, others shouted, “You’re killing children!” and “You’re bombing children!”
Vance replied by referring to Trump’s achievements as president, including securing a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, something he said the previous administration of Joe Biden failed to do.
“I ...
Sergey Shoigu has cautioned Finland and the Baltic states against allowing Kiev to use their airspace for attacks on Russia.
Russia would have the right to retaliate if Finland and the Baltic states are deliberately allowing Ukrainian drones to pass through their airspace, Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu said on Thursday.
“Recently, there has been an increase in Ukrainian drone strikes against Russia via Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia,” Shoigu told journalists. “As a result, civilians are suffering and significant damage is being caused to civilian infrastructure.”
Either Western air defenses are proving ineffective, or these four countries “deliberately provide their airspace, thereby becoming open accomplices in aggression against Russia,” he added. In the latter case, Moscow has the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter, the security chief stressed.
In recent weeks, Kiev has intensified drone strikes on ...
