Home PodcastInayet Wadee Israel must be forced to negotiate – NFP

Israel must be forced to negotiate – NFP

by Zahid Jadwat

The National Freedom Party (NFP)-sponsored draft resolution was passed in Parliament on Tuesday. [Picture: VOC]

 

The National Freedom Party (NFP) said Israel should be pressured to come to the negotiating table to find a peaceful end to its conflict with Palestine. The party successfully sponsored a resolution in Parliament to downgrade the South African embassy in Israel.

“Israel believes they are a law unto themselves, particularly because of the support that they get. It is for that reason we felt we must go ahead and put pressure on them because of the pressure in South Africa with international sanctions that brought us to the negotiating table and that’s why we are liberated today,” said NFP parliamentary leader Ahmed Munzoor Shaik Emam.

The draft resolution was passed by Parliament on Tuesday. Brought by the two-seat party, it was supported by the African National Congress (ANC), United Democratic Movement (UDM), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), African Independent Congress (AIC), Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), and Al Jama-ah.

 

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Signalling dissatisfaction

Emam stated the downgrading of the South African embassy in Tel Aviv would signal dissatisfaction towards Israel’s aggressive actions against Palestinians.

“This is long coming and a result of the failure of the Israeli government to comply with agreements and failure to listen to the voices internationally and [of] the Palestinian people and also people in Israel – a large percentage of people in Israel are dissatisfied with the conduct of the Israeli government.”

The first two months of the year have been deadly for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government has claimed dozens of lives in deadly raids as it seeks to expand settlement in the occupied territory.

Emam was convinced this indicated a lack of will on behalf of Israel to arrive at a peaceful solution.

“The recent stance by the right-wing movement of the Israeli government, their continuation of building new settlements [and] committing atrocities against the Palestinian people clearly indicates that they have absolutely no intention of a peaceful solution,” he said.

 

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SAJBD reaction

The resolution’s passing sparked the ire of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD). Responding to the move, the group told The Citizen this was an attack on Jews.

“While framed as a human-rights motivated gesture, is in reality, driven by an obsessive enmity towards the world’s sole Jewish nation state and a desire to undermine and harm South Africa’s own best interests,” said chair Karen Milner.

She said the downgrade was a “gratuitous slap in the face” and described it as “overtly hostile, undiplomatic and above all blatantly discriminatory treatment” towards Israel.

However, Emam reflected on former president Nelson Mandela’s famous statement that South Africa would only be free once the Palestinians were liberated. He argued criticism on the basis of religion was unfounded, saying this was a matter concerning human rights.

 

Inayet Wadee and Ahmed Munzoor Shaik Emam, MP, spoke about the draft resolution to downgrade the South African embassy in Israel. Watch the full discussion here.

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