Deputy President Paul Mashatile said South Africa’s intervention in the Palestine-Israel conflict had been on a multilateral level. Picture: Supplied
Deputy President Paul Mashatile said on Tuesday South Africa had not provided arms to Hamas and the people of Palestine in defence against Israel.
“We have a way as a country in dealing with issues of arms and how we sell arms. No such a thing was done,” Mashatile said in the National Council of Provinces when asked if South Africa provided Hamas directly or indirectly with military equipment or financial aid.
He said the country’s intervention in the Palestine-Israel conflict had been on a multilateral level.
“Even with humanitarian aid, we work with the UN and other bodies.
We don’t provide arms to anybody. “We work with others to supply humanitarian aid for the people who find themselves in that situation, particularly Gaza, where they desperately need food and water, etcetera. We stand for peace. We support peace initiatives.”
Mashatile said conflict should be resolved through negotiation by peaceful means.
“South Africa is not going to support violence. We want peace and the sooner the warring parties come to the negotiations table, the better,” he added. “We do the same in Palestine. We want the killings to stop, the genocide to stop. Palestinian people have rights and these can be achieved through discussion and negotiation.”
Mashatile said South Africa had no regrets about taking Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
“We were the first to bring about a lawsuit against the State of Israel at the ICJ at The Hague to compel the State of Israel to end the deadly and relentless genocide bombardment of Gaza,” he said.
Mashatile said South Africa also condemned Hamas for their indiscriminate wanton violence meted out against civilians and that they were mindful that not every citizen supported the government stance to take Israel to the ICJ.
“We are aware that some at home and abroad started opposing our position. However, they too have revised their views, taking into consideration the number of deaths and sheer scale of human suffering.”
South Africa was in support of the collective right to self-determination by the people of Palestine, he said.
“The Palestinians must not be denied their rights, as we ourselves for many years fought for our rights.
We support them. They must be able to exist side by side with the State of Israel in Palestine. They must have rights of occupation in their state,” he said.
According to Mashatile, some South Africans did not understand their position on the Middle East conflict.
“It is us who must engage and make them understand why we take the position we take, particularly to support other oppressed people.”
Asked why the Israel embassy was not closed after Parliament passed a motion to do this, as well as cut diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv, Mashatile said the issue of closing the Israel embassy was dealt with at a different level.
“We want to assist the people in Palestine. We did not want to close ourselves out. That is why we kept our embassy open. They would have closed ours and we would not be able to go to that part to intervene.
“Never doubt our commitment to support the people of Palestine,” Mashatile said.
Cape Times