South African foreign minister wants Israel designated an apartheid state
South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, says that Israel should be designated an “apartheid state”.
Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Mario Draghi welcome Foreign Minister of South Africa Naledi Pandor, at the occasion of the G20 Rome summit, Oct. 30, 2021. Credit: Italian President’s Office.
On Monday, she called on the U.N. General Assembly to establish a committee to formally probe whether or not Israel meets the criteria for that designation.
Pandor’s remarks at the United Nations are the harshest toward Israel from any South African official thus far, even though South Africa generally adopts a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel stance.
Pandor demanded a U.N. committee at a meeting of the Palestinian Heads of Mission in Africa Conference in Pretoria. She said that the Palestinian narrative revived “experiences of oppression and separation” South Africa experienced under apartheid.
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, who also attended the meeting, said in an interview with South Africa’s public broadcaster that if there were any countries able to comprehend the Palestinian “struggle for liberty and independence,” it would be the countries of Africa.
South African hostility toward Israel goes back decades. During the time of the country’s apartheid regime, when South Africa was under an international boycott, Israel maintained ties with it that included military cooperation. Foreign reports have said that the two countries collaborated on nuclear projects, as well.
This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.
(Israel Hayom via JNS) Report by Tamir Mora
Naledi Pandor doesn’t appear to understand that the Arab Israelis are under Israel’s governance, but not the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza.
Her ignorance is more than obvious. And her assertions, using apartheid as a term in the way she does, pays disrespect to the history of apartheid in South Africa.
these people are crazy who do they think they are. Somebody is always telling Israel what they need to do or what to do.