South Africa marks International Quds Day

Under the watchful gaze of South Africa’s own anti-Apartheid icons, they came out to highlight the plight of the Palestinian people again.

For decades many of those here have marched annually to the gates of parliament demanding decisive action from the government – which itself fought a racist, supremacist regime once.

In a ground-breaking move, just weeks ago Parliament passed a motion to downgrade ties with the Israeli regime. But questions remain whether the ANC-led government will see this through. After years of advocating neutrality, South Africa took a more resolute stance against Israel at the African Union, preventing the Zionist regime from gaining observer status.

Representatives from the ruling party participated in the International Quds Day march to parliament here and agreed there are more needs to be done.

South Africa withdrew its ambassador from Israel in 2018, but the Israeli ambassador still enjoyed full diplomatic status here. The parliamentary motion pledges to expel Tel Aviv’s representative and downgrade the embassy to a liaison office.

Underpinned by the vision of International Quds Day, for those who have protested here annually, the latest moves are a victory indeed.