Israel’s “continuous racist practices” against Palestinians in the occupied Palestine have forced Pretoria to rethink its policy towards Tel Aviv, International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor said on Wednesday.
Speaking during a parliamentary meeting in Cape Town, Pandor said South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party had issued orders to reduce the operation level at the country’s embassy in Israel as a protest to the continuing degrading treatment of Palestinians.
South Africa recalled its ambassador to Israel following a bloody crackdown on Palestinian protesters by occupation forces that left at least 55 dead and 2,700 injured in May 2018, she said.
“We are studying the latest human rights reports related to the Israeli occupation authorities,” Pandor said.
The minister said she expected South Africa’s ministerial council to take “extra direct action against the documented racist practices in the occupied Palestinian territories.”
“It is a fact that we have diplomatic relations with Israel but this does not mean that we will allow its integration into the African Union,” she said, noting that her country had strongly opposed to granting Israel observer status into the continental body.
African Heads of States and governments meeting at the AU Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, early February revoked Israel’s observer status to the continental bloc.
NM/jn/APA