Why South Africa feels a deep connection to the Palestinian cause amid Gaza war

Members of General Industrial Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA), civil associations and political parties hold anti-Israel banners during a pro-Palestine demonstration in front of the Israeli Trade and Economic Office in Sandton, Johannesburg, on January 27, 2022. (AFP)
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Updated 23 January 2024
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Why South Africa feels a deep connection to the Palestinian cause amid Gaza war

  • South Africa has lodged a case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza
  • The ruling ANC has long acknowledged parallels between the Palestinian struggle and its own fight against apartheid

DUBAI: On Jan. 11 South Africa asked the International Court of Justice at The Hague to rule on whether Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza amounted to genocide. Israel responded by accusing the country of “functioning as the legal arm” of Hamas. 

But South African support for the Palestinians is not a new phenomenon. For years its government and civil society have shown unwavering support for the Palestinian cause, despite considerable geographical and cultural differences.




People raise flags and placards as they gather around a statue of late South African president Nelson Mandela to celebrate a landmark genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice, in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on January 10, 2024.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule, which until 1994 forced Blacks to live in specially designated “homelands.” 

“Today we join the world in expressing horror at the war crimes being committed in Palestine through the targeting of civilians, civilian infrastructure, UN premises and other vulnerable targets,” Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s minister of international relations and cooperation, said in a statement on Nov. 7.

“These actions remind us of our experiences as Black South Africans living under apartheid. This is one of the key reasons South Africans, like people in cities all over the world, have taken to the streets to express their anger and concern at what is taking place in Gaza and the West Bank.”




South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule. (AFP)

Israel launched its military campaign in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, which saw Palestinian militants kill some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and take 240 hostage, including many non-Israeli foreign nationals.

Since then, the Israel Defense Forces have waged a ferocious air and ground campaign against Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, killing more than 25,000 Palestinans, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Since the war began, symbols of solidarity have sprung up across South Africa. Street artists have painted murals of the Palestinian flag, billboards have been erected accusing Israel of genocide, and stickers featuring slogans like “Genocide IsREAL” and “#FreeGaza” have been distributed.

“As a South African, one knows oppression, resistance and apartheid,” Leila Samira Khan, a South African lawyer and activist, told Arab News.

“Palestine is intertwined with South Africa’s fight for freedom. I was born in the Netherlands to South African parents in the ’70s and was named after Leila Khaled,” she said, referring to the famed Palestinian activist.




Palestinian children look for salvageable items amid the destruction on the southern outskirts of Khan Yunis in the war-battered Gaza Strip on January 16, 2024. (AFP)

South Africa recalled its diplomats from Tel Aviv in early November. Later that month, its parliament voted to suspend all diplomatic ties with Israel and to close the Israeli Embassy in Pretoria. Israel has since recalled its ambassador.

Then, in December, in a move which thrust South Africa into the international spotlight, it filed its suit against Israel at the ICJ, accusing it of breaching the Genocide Convention. 

“The scale of destruction in Gaza, the targeting of family homes and civilians, the war being a war on children, all make clear that genocidal intent is both understood and has been put into practice,” Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, a member of the South African legal team, said in the ICJ.

“The articulated intent is the destruction of Palestinian life in all its manifestations.”




A group of lawyers and advocates hold placards as they take part in an interfaith protest in solidarity with Palestinian people outside the High Court in Cape Town on January 11, 2024. (AFP)

While the case has irked many Western governments, it has won South Africa praise from nations like Turkiye and Malaysia and groupings like the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which have joined the case. 

This championing of the Palestinian cause in South Africa has deep roots that date back to the days when the ANC was waging its own decades-long campaign against apartheid, a system that prevailed from 1948 until the early 1990s. 

Under apartheid, the white minority dominated politics, business, land ownership, and all facets of civic life, while enforcing a system of harsh racial segregation and discrimination that deemed the races “separate but equal.” 

In reality, Black South Africans who lived through that period recall feeling marginalized and like second-class citizens in their own land — feelings not dissimilar to those felt by the Palestinians in the occupied territories.




Black South Africans who lived through apartheid recall feeling marginalized and like second-class citizens in their own land — feelings not dissimilar to those felt by the Palestinians in the occupied territories. (AFP)

“As South Africans we feel deeply connected to the Palestinian struggle,” Thania Petersen, a South African artist based in Cape Town, told Arab News. 

“We understand and recognize apartheid as well as the devastation which comes with dealing and living in a post-apartheid society.”

Meanwhile, even as much of the international community introduced sanctions against apartheid South Africa for its increasingly unpopular policies, Israel continued to supply the white-minority government with weapons and technology.

The ANC’s solidarity with Palestine dates back to the 1950s and ’60s when several African nations were gaining independence after centuries under European colonial rule.

During its struggle against apartheid, and later once in power, the ANC fostered close ties with the Palestine Liberation Organization. 




A Palestinian man holds a portrait of late Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat and South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela as the national flags of both nations flutter outside the municipality building in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on January 12, 2024. (AFP)

Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first post-apartheid president, who spent 27 years in jail for his fight against white minority rule, was even on friendly terms with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.

On Feb. 15, 1995, a year after South Africa’s first non-racial elections, which propelled Mandela to power, the newly-minted “rainbow nation” established formal diplomatic ties with the State of Palestine. 

For years, the ANC and the PLO supported each other’s anti-colonial campaigns, trading weapons and consulting on strategies to do away with colonization.

A significant moment that solidified South Africa’s ties and commitment to Palestine was when Arafat met Mandela in Zambia in 1990, barely two weeks after the latter had been released from prison. 

Mandela subsequently visited both Israel and Palestine and called for peace between both nations.




Yasser Arafat, right, greeted Nelson Mandela when the latter arrived at Gaza airport in 1999 for an official visit to Palestine. (AFP/File)

“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians,” Mandela said in 1997 during a speech marking International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria.

“The temptation in our situation is to speak in muffled tones about an issue such as the right of the people of Palestine to a state of their own. We can easily be enticed to read reconciliation and fairness as meaning parity between justice and injustice. 

“Having achieved our own freedom, we can fall into the trap of washing our hands of difficulties that others face. Yet we would be less than human if we did so.”




Pro-Palestinian groups and other civil society organizations demonstrate, in Durban on June 2, 2018 to protest against the killing of Palestinians by Israeli forces in Gaza. (AFP/File)

South Africa’s support for the Palestinian cause continues fervently to this day. In the ANC’s latest policy document, published in late 2022, the ruling party emphasized South Africa’s historical ties to Palestine. 

“South Africa and Palestine share a common history of struggle,” the document said, describing Israel as an “apartheid state” and declaring its intention to loosen South Africa’s diplomatic ties with Israel.

“As individuals we feel deeply for Palestinians because we know apartheid, we know what it looks like and we live with the ongoing violence of its legacy,” Petersen told Arab News. 

“We have an obligation to humanity to fight what we know is wrong. As South Africans we will always fight against apartheid and colonialism. Our leaders have always uttered the words that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of Palestine.”

In a recent piece for The Economist, Suraya Dadoo, a South African writer and activist, said: “South Africa’s voice has been the loudest, mainly due to the fact that our liberation history and struggle is most recent, and that the system of apartheid that Israel practices against the Palestinians is eerily similar.

“Settler colonial societies can only exist with the absolute annihilation of the indigenous people or by the complete subjugation of the people and their land. There is no other way they can sustain their existence but through violence.”

While South Africa’s championing of the Palestinian cause is understandable given its own struggle against apartheid, it has been harder to reconcile its support for Hamas. 

After the Oct. 7 attacks, many Arab countries that were sympathetic to the Palestinian cause sought to distance themselves from the militant group. Although it condemned the atrocities, South Africa was slower to do so than other nations.

By contrast, it rushed to condemn the mounting Palestinian death toll in Gaza after Israel launched its retaliatory campaign.

South Africa is one of just a handful of countries that has formal diplomatic relations with Hamas — a group that many nations consider a terrorist organization.

Its openness to relations with Hamas is partly informed by its own history. Indeed, the ANC was itself often considered a terrorist organization before the country made its largely peaceful transition to multi-racial democracy.




A man holds a Palestinian flag as they take part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the High Court in Cape Town on January 11, 2024. (AFP)

South Africa’s claim that Israel is committing acts of genocide against the Palestinians has also exposed it to accusations of double standards, particularly as its government appears to take a softer stance on the misdeeds of other armed actors.

Just a week before making its case at The Hague, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa hosted Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, a Sudanese warlord known as Hemedti, whose Janjaweed militia and its successor, the Rapid Support Forces, is accused of committing acts of genocide in Darfur. 

The RSF paramilitary group has been locked in battle with the Sudanese Armed Forces since April last year, sparking one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, which many fear could destabilize the wider region.

However, Petersen says public opposition to Israel in particular runs far deeper for South Africans, mindful of its past support for apartheid. 

“Palestinians and South Africans are fighting the same fight,” she said. “It is not (a) separate (issue that) Israel was involved with the apartheid government in South Africa and it is not surprising that the Zionist lobby in South Africa benefited from apartheid.”

 


‘Many more’ Conservative MPs back UK govt stance on Israel: MP

Updated 24 May 2025
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‘Many more’ Conservative MPs back UK govt stance on Israel: MP

  • Mark Pritchard: PM ‘on right side of history’ after joint statement condemning Gaza war
  • Britain must recognize Palestinian state in ‘huge symbol of support’

LONDON: “Many more” Conservative MPs in the UK privately support calls by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and British allies for Israel to end its Gaza war, a Conservative MP has said.

Mark Pritchard told LBC that Starmer is on the “right side of history” and “humanity,” The Independent reported on Saturday.

However, Pritchard refused to criticize Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who questioned new British sanctions on Israeli settlers and a joint UK-France-Canada statement on Gaza this week.

The leaders of the three countries condemned “egregious” Israeli actions in Gaza and threatened to take “concrete actions” if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fails to change course.

In response, Netanyahu accused the UK, France and Canada of being on the “wrong side of justice.”

Pritchard, who describes himself as strongly pro-Israel, told LBC: “Half the population of Gaza are children. They are being literally bombed to bits every single day. They are being slowly starved.

“It’s absolutely right the UK prime minister, who so happens to be a Labour prime minister right now, would stand up on the right side.

“I push it back to the Israeli prime minister. I think Keir Starmer and those standing up for the children of Gaza are on the right side of history, the right side of humanity and are making the right moral judgment.”

Pritchard said he now believes in the necessity of Britain recognizing a Palestinian state. “It may be symbolic, but I think it will be a huge symbol of support both for the Israelis that want to see that and also for the Palestinians. But the key point at the moment is the Israeli government need to be held to account,” he added.

“I support the UK prime minister and many more, by the way, in the British Conservative Party, are coming up to me privately at the moment.”

On Friday, Badenoch said the government’s new actions targeting Israeli settlers and trade relations with the country are not the “right way” to resolve differences with Netanyahu.

Pritchard told LBC: “I’m coming on to support Kemi on the comments on antisemitism and supporting the prime minister on his strong stand, finally, on what’s going on in Gaza.”


UAE hits record May temperature of 51.6C

Updated 24 May 2025
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UAE hits record May temperature of 51.6C

  • The highest temperature recorded over the country was 51.6C in Sweihan (Al Ain)
  • Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates breached its May temperature record for the second day in a row, hitting 51.6 degrees Celsius on Saturday, according to the National Center of Meteorology.

“The highest temperature recorded over the country today is 51.6C in Sweihan (Al Ain) at 13:45 UAE local time (0945 GMT),” the office said in a post on X, 1.2C hotter than the temperature recorded on Friday in the Abu Dhabi area.

Both those temperatures exceeded a previous record for the month of 50.2 Celsius recorded in May 2009, according to the meteorology office.

The desert nation lies in one of the planet’s hottest regions and one which is particularly vulnerable to climate change.

Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming and that these heatwaves are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.

The number of extremely hot days has nearly doubled globally in the past three decades.

According to a 2022 Greenpeace study, the Middle East is at high risk of water and food scarcity as well as severe heat waves as a result of climate change.

The report, which focused on six countries, found the region was warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, making its food and water supplies “extremely vulnerable” to climate change.


Nine of Gazan doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli air strike

Updated 24 May 2025
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Nine of Gazan doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli air strike

  • Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar also saw her husband, Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar, critically injured
  • Couple’s only surviving child, 11-year-old boy, was severely wounded

LONDON: A pediatrician working in southern Gaza has lost nine of her 10 children in an Israeli air strike that hit her family home, in what fellow medics have described as an “unimaginable” tragedy.

Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar, who was on duty at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis at the time of the strike, also saw her husband, Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar, critically injured.

The couple’s only surviving child, an 11-year-old boy, was severely wounded and underwent emergency surgery on Friday, according to reports.

“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” said Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director general of Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. “In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted, Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”

Graphic footage shared by Palestinian Civil Defense, and verified by media outlets including the BBC, showed the remains of small children being pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building near a petrol station in Khan Younis.

British surgeon Dr. Graeme Groom, who is volunteering at Nasser hospital, said Dr Al-Najjar’s surviving son was his final patient of the day.

“He was very badly injured and seemed much younger as we lifted him onto the operating table,” he said in a video posted to social media.

Groom added that the child’s father, also a physician at the same hospital, had “no political and no military connections and doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media,” calling the strike “a particularly sad day.”

He continued: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here… and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”

Relative Youssef Al-Najjar, speaking to AFP, made an emotional plea: “Enough. Have mercy on us. We plead to all countries, the international community, the people, Hamas, and all factions to have mercy on us. We are exhausted from the displacement and the hunger.”

Dr. Victoria Rose, another British doctor at the hospital, said the family had lived near a petrol station and speculated that the strike may have caused or been worsened by a large explosion. “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza,” she said.

The Israel Defence Forces did not comment directly on the strike, but in a general statement said it had hit more than 100 targets across Gaza in a 24-hour period.

The Hamas-run health ministry reported at least 74 Palestinian deaths in that time frame alone.

The UN has warned that Gaza may be entering its “cruelest phase” of the war, with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denouncing Israel’s restrictions on aid as exacerbating a humanitarian catastrophe.

Although Israel partially lifted its blockade this week, allowing limited aid to enter, the UN says the deliveries fall far short of the 500–600 trucks of supplies needed daily to meet basic needs for the territory’s 2.1 million people.

Since Israel launched its offensive after Hamas militants stormed into Israel, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 251 others, on Oct. 7, 2023, more than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which includes women and children in its total but does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.


Erdogan, Syria’s Sharaa hold talks in Istanbul

Updated 24 May 2025
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Erdogan, Syria’s Sharaa hold talks in Istanbul

  • Video footage on Turkish television showed Erdogan shaking hands with Sharaa
  • The two countries’ foreign ministers also attended the talks

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was holding talks with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Istanbul on Saturday, news channel CNN Turk and state media said, broadcasting video of the two leaders greeting each other.

The visit comes the day after US President Donald Trump’s administration issued orders that it said would effectively lift sanctions on Syria. Trump had pledged to unwind the measures to help the country rebuild after its devastating civil war.

Video footage on Turkish television showed Erdogan shaking hands with Sharaa as he emerged from his car at the Dolmabahce Palace on the shores of the Bosphorus Strait in Turkiye’s largest city.

The two countries’ foreign ministers also attended the talks, as well as Turkiye’s defense minister and the head of the Turkish MIT intelligence agency, according to Turkiye’s state-owned Anadolu news agency.

The Syrian delegation also included Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra, according to Syrian state news agency SANA.

MIT chief Ibrahim Kalin and Sharaa this week held talks in Syria on the Syrian Kurdish YPG militant group laying down its weapons and integrating into Syrian security forces, a Turkish security source said previously.


US strike on Yemen kills Al-Qaeda members: Yemeni security sources

Updated 24 May 2025
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US strike on Yemen kills Al-Qaeda members: Yemeni security sources

  • “Five Al-Qaeda members were eliminated,” said a security source in Abyan
  • Washington once regarded the group as the militant network’s most dangerous branch

DUBAI: Five Al-Qaeda members have been killed in a strike blamed on the United States in southern Yemen, two Yemeni security sources told AFP on Saturday.

“Residents of the area informed us of the US strike... five Al-Qaeda members were eliminated,” said a security source in Abyan province, which borders the seat of Yemen’s internationally-recognized government in Aden.

“The US strike on Friday evening north of Khabar Al-Maraqsha killed five,” said a second source, referring to a mountainous area known to be used by Al-Qaeda.

The second security source added that, though the names of those killed in the strike were not known, it was believed one of Al-Qaeda’s local leaders was among the dead.

Washington once regarded the group, known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as the militant network’s most dangerous branch.

Born in 2009 from the merger of Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni and Saudi factions, AQAP grew and developed in the chaos of Yemen’s war, which since 2015 has pitted the Iran-backed Houthi militants against a Saudi-led coalition backing the government.

Earlier this month, the United States agreed a ceasefire with the Houthis, who have controlled large swathes of Yemen for more than a decade, ending weeks of intense American strikes on militant-held areas of the country.

The Houthis began firing at shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in November 2023, weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, prompting military strikes by the US and Britain beginning in January 2024.

The conflict in Yemen has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, although fighting decreased significantly after a UN-negotiated six-month truce in 2022.