S Africa’s Mbeki urges boycott of israeli goods

South Africa’s former President Thabo Mbeki has called for a boycott of Israeli goods to show solidarity with Palestinian people.

Mbeki said in an address to students at the University of South Africa in Pretoria that the public should mobilize against Israel so that it “does pay a price for the position that it is taking.”

South African political parties, trade unions and religious groups should join forces for a boycott of Israeli products and “divesting” from Israeli companies, he added.

People in South Africa have historically supported the Palestinians as they compare the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa with the Palestinian cause, and criticize the Israeli regime’s apartheid policies towards the oppressed Palestinian nation.

On Saturday, nearly 50,000 protesters staged a massive pro-Palestinian rally in South Africa’s second-most populous city, Cape Town, to voice their outrage at the Israeli regime’s massacre of innocent people in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

The organizers called for a “decisive action from the South African government against the Israeli attacks, killings, displacement and destruction of the Gaza Strip.”

The apartheid regime of Israel denies about 1.8 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.

Israeli warplanes have been carrying out incessant airstrikes against the blockaded Gaza Strip since July 8. On July 17, thousands of Israeli soldiers launched a ground invasion into the densely-populated strip.

More than 1,940 Palestinians, including a large number of women and children, have so far lost their lives and nearly 10,000 have been wounded in the Israeli offensive.