CAPE TOWN – Thousands of South Africans took to the streets of Cape Town, the country’s legislative capital, on Saturday for a mass march in support of the people of Gaza, demanding stronger government action in response to the ongoing Israeli military campaigns there.
Led by a convoy of motorcycles and bicycles, around 5,000 demonstrators from different civil society groups and faith-based organizations marched to the parliament to hand over a memorandum, with many carrying Palestinian flags and holding signs reading “Free Palestine” and “Stop the Genocide.”
“Today, Palestinians are enduring a live-streamed genocide at the hands of Israel, rooted in racist Zionist ideology and enabled by global imperial powers led by the United States of America, who act as co-belligerents, arming, funding, and providing diplomatic cover for the genocide,” said the memorandum.
While acknowledging South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, the memorandum demands that the South African government pursue further efforts to delink the country from Israel.
It calls for the termination of diplomatic relations with Israel by closing its embassy in South Africa and for an end to economic relations through the suspension of trade in coal, arms, and other commercial exchanges.
The memorandum also urges the government to suspend all cultural, academic, and sporting relations with Israel and hold South African companies that provide financial support to Israel accountable.
During the march, Usuf Chikte, coordinator of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, one of the organizers, said they want the South African government to take “urgent and decisive action” on Israel.
“We know what apartheid is, and we are determined to abolish it in Israel. Dismantle apartheid in Israel now,” Chikte told the crowd.
source: Xinhua