SA envoy offers Palestine help
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma’s envoys to the Middle East have agreed to try to call an international conference to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, according to the Palestinian Authority.
Former minister and ambassador Zola Skweyiya and former deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad met Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Alhamdalla, Foreign Minister Riad Malki and the ruling Fatah party’s international relations chief, Nabeel Shaath, in Ramallah, capital of the Palestinian Authority, on Sunday.
They also met Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tsachi Hanegbi in Tel Aviv, according to sources, on a mission to try to help bring about a cessation of the current warfare between Israel and Hamas, which has caused well over 1 000 deaths, mostly of Palestinian civilians.
The sources said that the South African envoys and Hanegbi had “agreed on significantly more than they had disagreed on” in a “successful meeting”.
Tamer Almassri, spokesman for the Palestinian embassy in Pretoria, said Skweyiya’s and Pahad’s meeting with the Palestinian leaders had also gone well and the Palestinian leaders had expressed great appreciation for South Africa’s support for their struggle for independence and freedom.
Visit
They had also discussed the proposed visit of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to South Africa.
Malki told them Israel was “destroying the last chance of peace depending on a two-state solution with its current aggression against Gaza”, and that by its silence the world was giving “something like immunity” to Israel’s actions.
Pahad had offered South Africa’s full political support to the Palestinian people to achieve freedom and independence, Almassri said.
Pahad and Skweyiya could not be reached for comment last night and the Department of International Relations and Co-operation said they would hold a press conference today to describe their visit.
Yesterday the ANC Youth League welcomed the mediation role which the South African government had offered.
It also repeated its demand that the government should expel Arthur Lenk, Israel’s ambassador to South Africa, and should recall its own ambassador to Israel.
The league said the ANC and its youth league had made clear resolutions on Palestine and had committed themselves in their highest decision-making body, the national congress, to supporting the Palestinian people.