Remember Jewish voice on embassy

FOLLOWING the recent Twitter poll carried out by the ANC, on whether the National ANC Conference should support the Palestinian struggle by accepting a recommendation for immediate and unconditional downgrade of the SA embassy in Tel Aviv, the results showed that 75% of ANC members who voted supported a total shutdown of the embassy, 11% were in favour of a lesser downgrade and 14% were not sure.

I would like to know, from those administering the poll, why the answer options are so limited. It is very clear that this poll is biased which begs the question: if South Africa’s founding principles are based on equality, why limit the poll options to three similar options, none of which favours the other side?

The Jewish voice has clearly been omitted. So too have the voices of the majority of South Africans who are not in favour of the downgrade. According to statistics, only 28% of South Africans are even aware of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, while for 72% of them, it has never reached their ears.

Since we’re working with statistics, my next question asks if the ANC is going to base the final decision on the 28% of people who are aware of the issue.

If so, it is clearly unbalanced and one-sided, because the downgrade threatens to have a detrimental effect on SA’s trade and tourism figures. South Africa/Israel relations will inevitably be negatively affected and the economic repercussions will be unavoidable.

SA’s very large and principled Christian community will also suffer the negative after-effects. Many, including myself, will find it difficult if not impossible to travel to Israel to visit the key points of our Christian faith.

The majority of South Africans are Christians and I am loathe to believe that the ANC would want to jeopardise its valuable relationship with the Christian community.

Both a downgrade and a total shutdown will not do either country any good. How about an upgrade to our mutual benefit?

Think of not having Facebook or your flash drive, your cellphone or your computer, and all the other marvels of Israeli technology that are still to come, and only then you will understand, realise and appreciate how much Israel impacts on your daily life.