From the Liveblog of
Saturday, October 5, 2024
‘We’re all Hamas’: Anti-Israel demonstrators march in South Africa to mark Oct. 7
Several hundred people march through central Cape waving Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans in a pro-Gaza rally to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas-led October 7 onslaught that started the ongoing war in Gaza.
With placards accusing Israel of genocide and racism, the marchers — many of them wearing the keffiyeh scarf that symbolizes the Palestinian struggle against Israel — walked to parliament in a protest organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
“Israel is a racist state” and “We are all Palestinian,” chant some of the marchers. Others hold up placards stating: “We are all Hamas” or “Zionism is racism.”
Some marchers say they agree with the South African case before the International Court of Justice that alleges the Israeli military operation against Hamas in Gaza, launched in response to the October 7 terror attack, amounts to “genocide.”
“I am appalled at Israel and the genocide and the attack on innocent people, children… and now moving on into Lebanon,” Linelle Arendse tells the News24 channel.
Many South Africans compare Israel’s stance towards Palestinians with the racially oppressive system of apartheid that imposed white-minority rule on South Africa until the first all-race election in 1994, a comparison rejected by Israel along with some prominent legal scholars and international organizations.
“I have been through the apartheid struggle so I know the pain of the Palestinians and Lebanese,” Shafiek Barnes tells News24. “I am here because I am Muslim and I feel the pain that they are going through.”
The organizers of the march hand to parliament a memorandum demanding the government implement the UN’s 1973 Apartheid Convention which declares apartheid systems a crime and allows for action against them, such as boycotts.
