South African governments, in the post-apartheid era, have often supported the Palestinian people and their struggle for their own homeland.
And when Israel began shelling Gaza in response for the attack by militant group Hamas, Pretoria was among the African capitals that stood out in ciritising the indiscriminate bombing.
This week, however, a call to Hamas leader raised eyebrows, embarrassing President Cyril Ramaphosa.
South Africa’s Minister for International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, called head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, this week, some 10 days after the ‘invasion’ and rocket attack by Hamas militants which left hundreds of Israelis dead and some 203 people hostage by the group.
With Israeli forces gathering in strength around Gaza’s borders, Ms Pandor called the Hamas leadership to offer humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
Gazans had been told by the Israelis to abandon their homes and offices in the northern part of the Gaza Strip as the Israeli Defence Forces prepare a ground operation in response the Hamas incursions of two weeks ago and ongoing rocket attacks.
But the call, sources said, was made without the prior knowledge of Ramaphosa, who has tried to walk a tightrope and balance between criticising Israeli’s excesses and not looking like supporting militants.
Earlier in the week, President Ramaphosa offered condolences to the people of Israel, but also pledged solidarity with the Palestinians, saying they were engaged in “a just struggle”.
South Africa supported a two-state solution, said Ramaphosa, adding that he had offered his country’s help with mediation in the conflict.
The influential Jewish representative body in South Africa, SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), said the support offered to Hamas in the wake of the attack on numerous Israeli target on October 7 had had “dragged our country into very dangerous waters”.
The SAJBD called on Pandor to resign or be fired “immediately”. Neither, however, is likely to happen.
Even before the formal end of apartheid in 1994, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has repeated at every possible occasion its support “for the struggle of the people of Palestine” in their fight for liberation from what routinely is described by ANC politicians as “Israel’s apartheid-style oppression”.
Despite making the call to a senior Hamas figure “off her own bat”, according to diplomatic sources, there has been no reprimand for Pandor.
In part this is because of the ANC’s view of the inherent similarities between the anti-apartheid struggle and the fight by Palestinians for their own homeland, free of Israeli check-points, punitive responses to prior attacks by militants and what is seen as a general oppression of Palestinians.
Not only did the ruling party in South Africa come out strongly in support of Pandor, considered one of the more thoughtful and experienced of Ramaphosa’s ministers, the ANC on Friday organised a march near the Israeli embassy in Pretoria demanding an end to the fighting which has claimed over 3,000 lives in just two weeks.
ANC officials involved in the march said there needed to be an end to Israeli “persecution and oppression” of the Palestinians, demanding “justice for the Palestinian people”.
“We stand for peace and freedom. The Palestinians have been under apartheid-style oppression for decades. Once the Israelis were victims (of oppression), but now they are perpetrators,” said an ANC official leading the march.
At the second meeting of the Palestinian Heads of Mission in Africa, held in the capital Pretoria last year, Pandor said: “The Palestinian narrative evokes experiences of South Africa’s own history of racial segregation and oppression.
“As oppressed South Africans, we experienced firsthand the effects of racial inequality, discrimination and denial, and we cannot stand by while another generation of Palestinians are left behind.”
Pretoria held that Israel should be classified as “an apartheid state” and that the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) should establish a committee to verify whether it satisfies the requirements for that label.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki, who attended the forum, said that, “If there is any country or countries that can comprehend the suffering and the struggle for freedom and independence of Palestine, it is the African continent and the people of Africa”.
There have been close diplomatic ties between the Palestinian authorities and S Africa in the post-apartheid era since the first Palestinian embassy in Pretoria was accredited in 1995.
“Our position on Palestine has always been clear, consistent, and convergent with the international community,” Pandor insisted.
Prior to the recent round of fighting, civil rights group in Gaza, the Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights, said some 5,418 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli military operations in the previous 15 years, including 1,246 children and 488 women.
The UN’s commission of inquiry to investigate violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, determined that Israel was responsible for severe human rights violations against Palestinians.
The ANC, in a formal statement by its secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, supported Pandor’s call to Hamas leadership this week, despite the heavy criticism which the call has drawn.
Critics pointed out that the perception of Pretoria’s uncritical support of Palestinian militants had put S Africa in a tricky position, after Hamas was designated as a “terrorist organisation” by the US and the EU.
SAJBB deputy vice-president, Zev Krengel, said Pandor’s only “legitimate” discussions (during her call to Hamas leaders) was to ensure the release of any S Africans kidnapped and taken hostages in the October 7 Hamas attack.
“You’ve got a (Palestinian) government that’s been hijacked by Islamic jihadists. Unless she (Pandor) resigns or she is fired, South Africa is in a seriously compromised position,” said the Jewish representative body.
“If we want to send things now to Gaza, who are you going to talk to? You must talk to Hamas. She has been insulted left and right, (but) there is nothing wrong with what she is doing. She is doing her job. That is what diplomats do,” said Mbalula.
“Special envoys are there for that. Hands off our minister Naledi Pandor – she has the right to talk to anybody,” Mbalula added.
“She has the right to do her job as long as she does not compromise the foreign policy of this country. She is not (doing that). She is advancing peace. She can talk to the Israelis as well, government to government,” Mbalula concluded.
Pandor confirmed speaking to Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, adding that the conversation had focused on humanitarian relief for Gaza, which is bracing for a ground invasion as part of Israel’s response to recent Hamas attacks.
“Pandor and the Hamas leader discussed how to get the necessary humanitarian aid to Gaza and other parts of the Palestinian territories,” her office said.
Other claims that S Africa was offering Hamas military and related support in their fight against Israeli were dismissed as “propaganda” by Pandor’s spokesperson.
“The reports that minister Pandor also offered support for the ‘Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood’, (as the Hamas incursion and attacks on 7 October have been labelled), are untrue and meant to impugn the minister and the government of South Africa,” added Pandor’s officials.
For its part, Hamas also confirmed the call, saying: “The head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, received a phone call from the South African Foreign Minister, where (she) affirmed South African solidarity with the Palestinian people and with Gaza in the Al-Aqsa flood battle, and expressed (her) sadness and regret for what the Palestinian people are experiencing in Gaza.”
