SOUTH AFRICA, Pretoria – South Africa’s third biggest political party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, has held a protest outside the Israeli embassy in the capital, Pretoria.
Party leader Julius Malema once again called for the closure of the embassy after saying Israel’s government had “no respect for humanity” over the ongoing bombardment of Palestine and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in a war sparked by an incursion by militant group Hamas into Israel and the murder of 1,300 people.
Malema also urged retailers in the country to remove Israeli-produced goods from their shelves by the end of October.
“If they don’t remove products from Israel, we’ll remove them ourselves. We don’t want Israeli products sold in South Africa, we don’t want food from people who have the blood of innocent people on their hands,” said Malema.
The governing African National Congress (ANC) held a similar picket outside Israel’s embassy on Friday.
ANC Deputy Secretary General Nomvula Mokonyane called on South Africans to boycott imports from Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Mokonyane also reiterated South Africa’s calls for an immediate ceasefire to hostilities in the Middle East.
Last week, a spokeswoman for the ANC Women’s League resigned, accusing the party of failing to see the “Jewish side of the story” in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
