Israel and Palestine should make peace, African National Congress (ANC)

All parties have been urged by the African National Congress (ANC) to seize the chance for peace between Israel and Palestine.

The African National Congress (ANC), the largest political party in South Africa, has appealed for peace in the Gaza Strip as a battle between Israel and Hamas that began over the weekend has claimed hundreds of lives.

Since Saturday, when Hamas militants carried out fatal attacks within Israel and fired rockets at it, Israel has started attacking Gaza.

In a statement, the ANC demanded that UN resolutions and international law be upheld, arguing that the international community could no longer evade its obligation to take action. It urged the international community to step in and see that a two-state solution based on the “1967 borders,” the lines formed after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War that now serve as Israel’s internationally recognised borders, were put into place.

The party claimed that Israel’s strategy of chronic land confiscation had brought the Palestinians to the verge of escalation and had prompted the Palestinian organisations to react.

“The reality of occupied Palestine and the history of apartheid South Africa can no longer be contested. Therefore, it is not surprising that Palestinians have chosen to react to the harshness of the settler Israeli apartheid rule, according to the ANC.

Following the end of Apartheid, diplomatic contacts between South Africa and Israel were resumed; nevertheless, current relationships are strained and constrained as a result of the Palestinian conflict.

Israel claimed in February of this year that Algeria and South Africa were responsible for the expulsion of an Israeli delegate from the African Union (AU) session in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. Both nations refuted Israel’s accusations.

Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, has not yet made a public statement regarding the violence. However, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation stated that “in the absence of a just and comprehensive resolution of the conflict,” no enduring peace in the area is possible.

Other African leaders have spoken out in favour of a speedy end to the hostilities between Israel and Hamas.