Photo – BDS South Africa
Johannesburg – The Palestinian Solidarity Campaign Cape Town (PSC) and Media Review Network (MRN) have submitted a complaint after finding several young South Africans are serving in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).
The complaint has been submitted to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the South African Police Service (SAPS). The revelation has come after an extensive investigation.
During the second Lebanon War, a soldier from the IDF was captured by the Lebanese resistance movement, who discovered the soldier was South African. While serving in a foreign army as a South African citizen without the consent of the South African government goes against South African law, it proved the rumours were true. South Africans are serving in the IDF. After much lobbying for the government to act against this, it was soon found the political will to enforce action was absent. It was on this basis that he South African Zionist Terrorism Corridor Probe was created.
A press conference was held to explain the “Executive Summary” of the complaint, compiled by the Zionism Terrorism Corridor Probe. The summary details the complaints, the evidence gathered by the probe, as well as naming those who were to be investigated and charged.
Ziyaad Patel, a legal representative of the PSC, explained it has taken “a significant amount of time and research to get to the crux of how recruitment happens in South Africa and all over the world”. Patel believes all the chaos that exists today is funded by the global military industrial complex.
“Let’s not fool ourselves. Humanity has gone to the stage of production of arms and ammunitions that can destroy the entire planet. We have seen cities in Ukraine being decimated… Zionist Apartheid Israel continues to be supported by the West, by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the European Union, where billions of dollars continue to be funded to the IDF and in return they use those weapons of mass destruction in Gaza and occupied territories. They then have the audacity to sell those weapons to other countries noting that it is battle tested against innocent civilians.”
Patel explains that this blatant domination of one side against another should be seen as “state terrorism perpetrated by Israel”. Even more troubling is that South African citizens are complicit in these actions.
“We have South African nationals and citizens that brazenly commit themselves as young people, male and female … to go and serve Israel in murdering and slaughtering innocent human beings.”
The aim of the criminal complaint is to seek out these individuals, bring them and the organisations they work for, and support, to justice.
“We are now challenging South African nationals and citizens, institutions, enablers, those that source, recruit and fund this kind of complicity and breaking all laws of this country.”
While they are working on new legislations and laws to be instituted, there are existing legislations which can be used to hold South African enlisters to the IDF accountable for their actions.
Patel has worked on several cases and criminal complaints over the past ten years. The Terrorism Corridor brings all these cases, complaints, and dockets into one criminal complaint against Israel.
Israel continues to perpetrate war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression, colonialism, and Apartheid with complete impunity and unaccountability to the “United Nations, International Criminal Court all because of the political influences and power play by the supreme nations that want to pose their agendas on the rest of humanity and the world,” said Patel.
The only way to deal with this is by creating new national legislation according to Patel.
“By building national jurisdictions, building our own country’s legal systems and enforcement agencies to say, ‘If you will not do something on the international arena then we will do something within our national jurisdictions’ and we will collaborate with other jurisdictions like Canada where we know that foreign recruitment [by the IDF] is happening. Terrorism related activities are happening on a daily scale.”
One way of garnering support is through lawfare advocacy of the IPPSRA Bill (Implementation and Protection of Palestinian Solidarity Rights Act) and by lobbying its support amongst politicians and civil society to pass the same or a similar legislation across national jurisdictions, explained Patel.
While sanctions were imposed on Russia “it’s taken seventy-four years with no sanctions or embargoes or anything against Israel”.
“These sanctions will be part of the new legislations as well as surveillance of those IDF soldiers, nationals and citizens of the country that want to serve in the IDF with a South African permit.”
Soldiers recruited by the IDF are armed and well trained. They now become “a threat to our own security and should be considered terrorists’.
Palestinians are refused entry into their lands while South African citizens who wish to serve in the IDF are granted a place to stay. This goes against international laws.
“United Nations resolution 2334 says that settlements cannot continue within the sixty-seven borders.”
While the Executive Summary indicates that Israeli illegal settlements have grown larger over time.
Not only are South Africans in the IDF serving to continue the wars taking place in Gaza and the West Bank, but they are maintaining “the systematic oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank and occupied Palestinian territories”.
South Africans post pictures of themselves serving in the IDF on their social media. Before one goes to serve in a foreign military they must seek approval, first from the cabinet, said Patel.
The complaint has been served to the NPA and it is now up to them to do their investigation and take up the call and charge those implicated and listed in the Executive Summary.
