The South African government has said it will recall all diplomats from Israel to “signal” its concern over the situation in Gaza.
“We are … extremely concerned at the continued killing of children and innocent civilians in the Palestinian territories and we believe the nature of response by Israel has become one of collective punishment,” Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor told a later press conference.
“We felt it important that we do signal the concern of South Africa while continuing to call for a comprehensive cessation [of hostilities].”
Fighting has raged in the Gaza Strip for a month since Hamas fighters launched an unprecedented attack across the border into Israel on October 7.
More than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel since the attack, during which Hamas took more than 240 people hostage.
In response, Israel has relentlessly bombarded Gaza and sent in ground troops. The health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory says close to 10,000 people have been killed. The casualties are mainly civilians and include several thousand children.
Pretoria has long been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party often linking it to its own earlier struggle against apartheid.
Pandor said the recall of the diplomats was “normal practice”, adding the envoys would give a “full briefing” on the situation to the government, which will then decide whether it can be of assistance or if a “continued relationship is actually able to be sustained”.
Several countries have recalled diplomats from Israel as global criticism of its continued bombardment of Gaza grows.
NATO member Turkey did so on Saturday, joining fellow Muslim states such as Jordan and Bahrain. Several South American countries have also broken ties following Bolivia, which at the start of November became the first nation to sever diplomatic links with Israel due to its “disproportionate” attacks in Gaza.
Source AlJazeera
That’s the correct position. African puppet governments are very quiet, just like ours. Netanyahu is the current Hitler
Don’t be brainwashed. When Hamas was slaughtering innocent people, the whole Arab world was celebrating. Israel has the right to defend herself. The Gaza victims are a result of war.
For your information, Israel will always exist.
Brainwashed are those that believe the sewer grade Zionist lie that Jews are the chosen people. Which god can choose these murderous perverts? They enjoy killing. It’s like Netanyahu gets an organism for every Palestinian killed. It’s sickening
South Africa is a captive of Muslims. This action is against the wall of majority indigenous South Africans.
South Africa is brain washed by islamic ideologies.
Who cares what SA does
Ayatollah, I don’t think we’re brainwashed. I hope you’re not an anti-Semite. Examples: UK’s demise from a superpower. After The Balfour Declaration, UK reneged and preventedJews from returning to Israel; Germany’s Hitler, The OAU (AU) support for the Arab countries in the 1973 Yom Kippur war. Africa went into decline (to this day) and overtaken in economic prosperity by Asia. Our copper became worthless as prices collapsed on the LME. Compare this with Pro-Israel countries eg USA and the west (hate them or love them). As for S.Africa, it’s anti Israel ANC stance has already began to show eg electricity shortage, economic decline, unexplained chaos eg violent crime, poverty etc.
We stand on God’s Word.
I’ll bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.
Gen 12.31
@Chief dreamer Steve. Stop your wild imaginations. Stop using religion to ignore facts. What social science formulas are using to reach your crazy conclusions that cant be proved by anything including the bible?
Just look at Zambia: In restoring diplomatic relations with Israel, your previous president Chiluba quoted the very same verse you have quoted. Then the Kwacha started falling, debt was rising up to today, Unemployment has more than doubled since our diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv were restored. In short no manna started falling. Have we been blessed? Stop using religion for the continued perpetuation of evil acts!
I thought Hamas knew what they were doing when they opened this war before October 7!
Yes they knew but you have to understand where this is coming from. Briefly Israel has been encroaching on Palestinian land and in the process many Palestinians have been killed in both the West Bank and Gaza. Israel actually created Hamas. Can you accommodate two million people in an area between Kitwe and Luanshya turn off. That’s the situation. We fought for independence because we also found ourselves in the same situation…. but not as bad.
This no longer a war but a massacre to completely wipe out the Palestinians…. which has always been the wish of the Israel government.
It’s never been a war. Israel wants to justify its genocide by calling it a war. Whether someone angered you or you just hate them doesn’t justify massacring them. How do you fight Hamas by killing all Palestinians? Jews don’t learn from their own history. And the whole world is cheering them on.
Hh is doing exactly what he did during breakout of Ukraine war. He is doing nothing. I have been receiving calls from friends and zambian stuck in isreael and gaza. Hh will leave you to die. Evil chcarla!!
Pathalogical L1ar
Let’s worry and toil about our Zambia and Africa. Did these conflict ridden area even care about us we we fought against European colonialism in black Africa.
What has happened since you kicked them out ??
suffering kikiki
Zambia Celebrates Relocation of US Embassy to Jerusalem as SA Recalls its Envoy in Protest in 2018 and Kaizar Zulu while he was in PF celebrated by shooting at a hotel.
Did you see one of these private TV stations in Zambia with a caption on their main news last night that ” Malawian MPs in Zambia for death penalty” surely if there were space issues you could have reduced the font and squeezed in the word learnings in front. Does this TV station understand the implication of their caption
@Tikki go and sort out the drug epidemic homelessness in America ( Kensington, Philadelphia and LA). Black Africa doesn’t and will not interfere. Allow us to deal with our problems. Why are you so concerned with our problems. You have massive problems of your own. Mind your own business. Shaa!
South Africa is over reacting for self-serving reasons. This meaningless stunt is meant to compensate to distract from the cowardly decision by South Africa to bar President Putin from the BRICS summit held in their country, when so instructed by the West. When Africans were poorer and weaker than they are, they walked a more courageous road on Israel. Exactly 50 years ago, all African countries broke relations with Israel at the demand of Arabs who were defeated by Israel in the war that year. The Israelis had development projects in these countries, which included the building of the Univ of Zambia. The Israelis were forced to abandon these projects, and the Arabs never used their oil money to finish them.
When Israel defeated the Arabs in 1973, the Arabs decided to punish “the world”, by withholding crude oil, and thereafter successively increasing its prices. The oil price hikes destroyed the economies of African countries. They also made the US by far the strongest country in the world. The reason is that Saudi Arabia agreed to price its oil in US dollars only. It also agreed to use the massive profits from the sale of oil to buy the American weapons left over from Vietnam, and to invest the other profits in American stock markets. The other oil producers followed suit, and in effect gave all their oil to America because all America has to do is to print dollars to get oil. Failure to do this the Americans threatened to attack and confiscate Saudi oil fields.
So if the Arabs have handed over their oil to America, and America is using its power of the supply of oil to fund and arm Israel? Whose fault is this? Why does Africa have to fight and suffer for Arab stupidity?
Killing of innocent children is abominable.
Why is South Africa fighting “apartheid” in Israel when it fails to fight apartheid in South Africa? White people in South Africa have a region called Orania that is within where only white people are allowed to live to this very date. Even the so-called freedom that these cowardly South Africans have was won for them by Angola. The war Angola fought on behalf of South Africa cost Angola 1.4 million dead, and million more injured, including 1 million and counting, maimed by CIA supplied land mines. On the other side of Africa, Mozambique suffered 1 million dead, and millions more injured. The Cubans lost 10, 000 dead and buried in Angola, thousands more injured. Meanwhile, the rubbish sellout deal Mandela signed with whites left black South Africans owning nothing.
Imagine if another country attacked say one of our outlying towns, Abducted some. injured and killed 1400 ppl, and our govt doesn’t retaliate for fear of killing innocent citizens of the perpetrators. What would you do? That would probably be the end of that govt . 9/11 led to the Iraqi war. Invasion of Poland started world war 2. What complicates Gaza is you have a govt whose sole purpose of its existence is to obliterate and Jews from Israel and remember they were voted into power based on that promise. Thats probably why the civilian population won’t move south to avoid attacks. They probably stay to provide cover for the militants. One Hamas leader once said “We will use the west’s own human rights to defeat them”. Looks like that’s what they doing.
@Steve just come out and say you are an Israeli. We Zambians know that our country was attacked by RENAMO in the 80s. Should Zambia have bombed the whole of Mozambique to crush these rebels?
And you are trying to justify a war that Tony Blair, one of the perpetrators himself has admitted was a mistake? US and Britain had no evidence that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction but went ahead to crush Iraq- the modus operandi their puppet Israel is using. Everyone could see they just wanted to show military force and warn the Arab world that they could invade them willy nilly
Steve even has a shallow understanding of history. The second world war had been brewing long before Germany’s invasion of Poland. The invasion just climaxed a series of aggressive moves by Hitler. Seriously it wasn’t what started the war. Germany had been invading neighbors and signalling intentions for dominating the whole Europe. It invaded Czechoslovakia, and annexed Austria, and intended to capture France and the USSR.
Kalaleni, Which one of my assertions do you dispute? I think Chiluba’s actions were good. But I don’t know Chiluba’s heart. Was it because Chiluba used God like a ‘talisman’ (lucky charm) or a genuine act of faith and repentance? Later corruption charges and bad governance would seem to contradict this. They can also occur in generational cycles. Eg: God’s promise to Israel into the promised land withheld from a generation that disobeyed Him and spent 40years in the wilderness. Do I support atrocities in Gaza? No. But given the heinous acts committed by both sides, I’d rather be like the Asians. KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT. Nobody cares what we think anyway. Except God.
Kalileni – the RENAMO example is actually a good one. RENAMO was NOT an elected govt of Mozambique. Hamas is an elected of Gaza. Thats why the war is confined to Gaza and has not extended to the West Bank, a part of Palestine under PLO Govt. FRELIMO was and still is the elcted govt of Mozambique. Had we decided to retaliate, we would have targeted RENAMO strongholds and would have had every right to. But Mozambique/Zimbabwe were adequately handling RENAMO and didnt need Zambia to detract and escalate the war into a regional war.
As for Anti Warmonger, inadequate space didnt allow me to provide a ‘historical treatise’ of Germanic wars whose seeds were actually sown much earlier. My point was that the line in the sand (ie the trigger) was drawn on Poland. Some Historians argue that annexing Austria and occupation of Chesclovakia 1939 on their own may not have triggered WW2. Especially Austria due to their Germanic common language and support for the Nazi Party by the Austrian public. Attack on Russia didnt occur until 1941, 2 years after Poland attack. Btw Zambia broke diplomatic relations with Israel in 1967 after the 6day war. At that time Israel was constructing the University of Zambia, which they never finished because Kaunda kicked them out of Zambia.