South Africa says Israel committing ‘crimes of apartheid’ against Palestinians

The South Africa’s foreign minister said Israel should be classified as an apartheid regime over its continued occupation of Palestinian territories and the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.

The remarks were made by Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s minister of international relations and cooperation, during the second meeting of the Palestinian Heads of Mission in Africa, held in the capital Pretoria.

“These reports are significant in raising global awareness of the conditions that Palestinians are subjected to and they provide credence and support to an overwhelming body of factual evidence, all pointing to the fact that Israel is committing crimes of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians”, South Africa’s top diplomat said.

“The Palestinian narrative evokes experiences of South Africa’s own history of racial segregation and oppression,” she said.

The word apartheid is often associated with South Africa. Apartheid was a system of institutionalized racial segregation that existed in country from 1948 until the early 1990s.

The brutal apartheid regime in South Africa oppressed the country’s Black majority for generations and ensured that the country was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the minority white population.

“As oppressed South Africans, we experienced firsthand the effects of racial inequality, discrimination and denial and we cannot stand by while another generation of Palestinians are left behind,” Pandor said.

Palestinian foreign minister Riad Malki, who attended the forum, spoke to the state-run South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) after the session.

“If there is any country or countries that can comprehend the suffering and the struggle for freedom and independence of Palestine, it is the African continent and the people of Africa,” Malki said.

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