By Tasneem Adams

A decision to permanently withdraw South Africa’s ambassador from Israel has been hailed as a “step in the right direction”. On Wednesday night, Minister of International Relations Lindiwe Sisulu said the government has completed stage one in the process of the downgrading of South Africa’s embassy to Tel Aviv, by recalling the South African ambassador to Tel Aviv, Sisa Ngombane, back in South Africa. The recall follows a resolution adopted at the ANC’s national conference in 2017 to “unconditionally downgrade the South African Embassy in Israel to a Liaison Office”.

The Palestine Solidarity Alliance (PSA) has welcomed the withdrawal of the ambassador, saying serious steps must be taken to isolate the apartheid state of Israel.

“Israel exists and functions in an environment where international law is totally disregarded. The only way to hold them accountable is to isolate Israel. We hope the minister will have the support of the rest of the government to ensure this boycott is realised,” said PSA coordinator Nazeem Adam.

BDS South Africa spokesperson Tiseto Magama said the decision was “hugely significant”.

“Remember we have been calling for the implementation of the ANC’s resolution for two years. At the time, government said they are looking at the practical modalities that will flow from the downgrade. So clearly this is an effective step in that direction.”

“At the time, ambassador Ngombane had been recalled in response to the brutal attacks in Gaza. The minister is now saying that the ambassador is permanently back now.”

Minister Sisulu said South Africa’s liaison office in Tel Aviv will only provide consular services to SA citizens. She noted that the liaison office in Tel Aviv will have “no political mandate, no trade mandate and no development co-operation mandate”. Furthermore, it will not be responsible for trade and commercial activities.

Sisulu further stated that South Africa’s governing party, the ANC, already has “no relations with Israel” and suggested that eventually Israel would no longer have an ambassador in South Africa.

“The ANC’s position in relation to Israel is very clear. We have no relations with Israel. That’s what we would like the government to adopt as soon as possible,” Sisulu said.

Adam believes the next step should be to expel the Israeli ambassador from the country. He pointed out that any view this decision would negatively on the trade and investment relations between South Africa and Israel is misguided.

“There are no Israelis investing in South Africa so there is no loss that we will incur. There will be individual Zionist sympathisers that may lose out on their investment, but that’s the way we need to go…we need isolate everyone involved with Israel,” he said.

“Every day we see the massacre of Palestinians, expropriate of their land, demolition of their homes, the Judaization and expulsion of Palestinians from Jerusalem. So we need to take a moral stand.”

Asked if there was any scepticism that the decision was a political ploy ahead of the elections, Adam said they were hopeful it was not.

“From the ANC conference in 2017, there was a positive response to the resolution to downgrade the Israeli embassy. Our concern was that it was just lip service. So the announcement of the downgrade of the embassy is a positive step and it’s a tangible one.”

Magama says Zionist apologists will always find a reason why progressive decisions should not be taken.

“Through our own experience, many countries such as the US, France and UK, cited the same argument [economic relations] as the Zionist lobby – to bolster Israel’s relations with the rest of the world. That is a cop-out. Other people made significant sacrifices, including our own people, for those very same economic opportunities. This argument just says we should keep things normal despite all the atrocities and oppression in Palestine.”

The decision comes as UCTs Council delayed its decision to impose an academic boycott of Israel. The decision was sent back to the university’s senate for wider consultation on the long-term impact such a boycott could have.

VOC