The African National Congress (ANC), the left-wing party that currently represents South Africa's government, published a statement on Monday calling for "the international world to intervene to end the current and continual attacks by apartheid Israel against the people of Palestine."
The statement is in reaction to Operation Breaking Dawn which took place over the course of three days between the IDF and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, where it was concluded at a briefing by the IDF Spokesperson’s commander that Palestinian Islamic Jihad rockets killed more civilians in Gaza than IDF airstrikes did. However, the only mention of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in their statement was when they said that an "attack on innocent civilians being reduced to the killing of jihadists and by the mentioning of a 5-year-old girl is unacceptable."
@MYANC statement on the recent massacre of Palestinians by the apartheid Israel pic.twitter.com/q5qUZqI8eS
— African National Congress (@MYANC) August 8, 2022
The ANC statement also said that "persistence by the Israeli apartheid government in the atrocities it perpetrates against Palestinians should receive an equally intensive response from the progressive internationalists."
The political party also claimed that the Israeli government "invests in weapons to massacre Palestinians" instead of "investing in negotiations for a lasting peaceful settlement."
"Persistence by the Israeli apartheid government in the atrocities it perpetrates against Palestinians should receive an equally intensive response from the progressive internationalists."
African National Congress
The ANC concluded their statement by calling the international world "to invoke all the necessary international laws against Israel for its gross violations of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people."
Previous controversies
Previous controversy from the ANC included an incident in 2019 where the ruling party called on the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) "to refrain from actions that could be perceived as attempts to drive a wedge among the leaders of the ANC." This was shortly after SAJBD's vice president Zev Krengel claimed that International Relations Minister Lindiwe Sisulu is “the single biggest enemy” of South Africa's Jewish community.
The following year, the SAJBD accepted an apology from ANC politician Mcebo Dlamini for antisemitic comments he made in 2015 when he said that people should admire Adolf Hitler and delved into stereotypical antisemitic tropes about Jews.
Cody Levine contributed to this report.