The National Coalition for Palestine (NC4P), Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) and BDS South Africa welcome the speech delivered by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa.

Addressing the AU, as the newly elected chairperson of the AU, Ramaphosa pledged the African continent’s solidarity with the people of Palestine. Comparing the situation that Palestinians are facing to that which Black South Africans lived under during apartheid, Ramaphosa joined other African leaders in rejecting Donald Trump’s USA Israel “deal of the century”.

President Ramaphosa, echoing other African officials, said: “It [the Trump US-Israel deal] brought to mind the chronicled history that we as South Africans went through. The apartheid regime once imposed the Bantustan system on the people of South Africa without consulting them and with all the oppressive elements which that plan had…it sounds like this [Trump] plan has been consulted without all the people that matter and it sounds like a Bantustan type of construct.”

The AU Chairperson and President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, is accurately reflecting the sentiment of South Africa and Africa. We are confident that 2020 will see greater strides from South Africa and Africa for the Palestinian struggle and for the BDS boycott of Israel. We hope that as our parliament opens for the new year that it will be a leading voice in the boycott of Israel. We hope that 2020 will bring an end to Israel’s Apartheid regime and the ushering in of peace and justice for all the people who live in Palestine-Israel.

REMINDER: South African civil society will hold a Palestine solidarity protest today (Wednesday 12 February 2020) ahead of the upcoming State of the Nation Address (SONA). The picket is in support of the South African government’s firm stance against Israeli Apartheid and in protest against US President Donald Trump’s recent Apartheid Israel plan. The Palestine picket, which will start at 1pm outside the Parliament of South Africa in Cape Town, will be hosted and addressed by BDS South Africa, MJC, ANC, SACP, NC4P, COSATU, NEHAWU, Embassy of Palestine, FOCUS, ANC YL, YCL, FOCUS, Al Quds Foundation, Media Review Network, KZN Palestine Solidarity Forum, SAF-K and various other formations.

The Washington Post’s foreign policy editor Jackson Diehl recently wrote that Donald Trump’s disastrous and illegal apartheid Israel deal will “turbocharge” the BDS boycott of Israel movement….indeed, it will, in fact, it has!

Tisetso Magama, BDS SA: +27 (0) 614146348