The African National Congress’ (ANC) National General Council recommended on Sunday that travel to Israel be discouraged unless it promotes solidarity with the “Palestinian struggle”, according to theInternational Online news website.
There was strong consensus on this issue within the ruling party, the websitereported.
The positions taken by the ANC on international relations inform South Africa’s foreign policy, and are supposed to guide foreign policy formulation.
Senior ANC leaders have criticized Members of Parliament and business figures for travelling to Israel recently, according to International Online.
“Apartheid in South Africa was a picnic compared to what we have seen in the occupied territories,” Parliamentary Speaker Baleka Mbete was quoted as having said.
The recent visit to Israel by opposition leaders like Mosiuoa Lekota sponsored by the Friends of Israel has received criticism from the ruling party and its alliance partners, noted International Online, who claim that the Israeli government uses such visits to legitimize its alleged “occupation”.
The recommendation is the latest in a series of anti-Israel moves by the government in South Africa, which has frequently accused Israel of applying a policy of “apartheid” towards Palestinian Arabs.
The latest example came in September when ANC proposed new rulesregarding dual citizenship meant to stop South African citizens from joining the IDF.
The head of the ANC’s National Executive Committee on International Relations, Obed Bapela, said dual citizenship may not have “a place in the world” and admitted the main concern is South Africans who are fighting for the Israeli army which, he claimed, goes against the foreign policy of the South African government.
South Africa’s Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein issued a stinging response to the proposed rules, calling out the ANC party on its hypocritical and “obsessive” stance vis-a-vis the State of Israel.
In comment from the South African Jewish Board of Deputies on the latest recommendation against travel to Israel, president Zev Krengel said, “Placing a ban on travelling to Israel is wholly inconsistent with the way South Africa engages with other countries.”
“ANC representatives regularly travel to all parts of the world, including to countries with very poor human rights records; it’s therefore grossly discriminatory to single out Israel alone for a travel boycott,” he added, according to International Online.
“This undemocratic and dictatorial approach is reminiscent not of the Freedom Charter’s assertion that ‘All shall be free to travel without restriction’, but of how, during the apartheid years, South Africans were prohibited from travelling to Lusaka to meet with the exiled ANC leadership,” continued Krengel.
In recent years, South Africa has also imposed rules requiring that goods imported from Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem display special labels.
In another incident, President Jacob Zuma’s party has compared Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza to the actions of the Nazis during World War II, evoking outrage from Jewish groups in the country.
