By Kouthar Sambo

The National Freedom Party (NFP) has recently drafted a resolution, which has been passed by Parliament, to downgrade the South African embassy in Israel into a liaison office.

“The rest of the world should be inspired by it and do the same thing. This is not strange from South Africa as we are used to having this heart-warming solidarity from South Africa since it understands Apartheid and recognize it,” says Ahmed Abofoul, Palestinian International Lawyer, Legal Researcher, and Advocacy Officer at Al-Haq, a Ramallah-based Palestinian Human Rights Organization. Abofoul went on to reiterate the “moral and ethical” value reflected in the NFP’s move to downgrade the South African embassy in Israel, which he refers to as a “principled position.”

“With respect to its history, this is a resolution that was passed by the South African parliament. I think this position will inspire other countries. It is only logical and correct that South Africa leads the effort to have more states with similar positions and take concrete action to end Israeli Apartheid,” Abufoul reiterates.

Some may question whether the downgrade of the South African embassy affects the Israeli state or if all efforts in taking a stand against Palestinian oppression are vane.
However, Abofoul notes the Apartheid era and highlights sanctions that were previously imposed on South Africa, therefore resulting in the eradication of the Apartheid regime.

“Things might not appear that it is affecting Isreal as much but believe me, they do. And as people weren’t receptive to the idea that the Apartheid regime in South Africa might end anytime soon; it did end very soon after the international community collectively started taking action. We have a similar situation where South Africa is at the forefront of leading these efforts, and I hope that South Africa will also take further steps to join with other like-minded states, to reactivate such mechanisms that were crucial to the end of apartheid in SA,” Abufoul explains, who went on to say that such collective contributions should not be undermined when it comes to ending Israeli apartheid in Palestine.

Furthermore, some of the political parties that supported the resolution, included the African National Congress (ANC), United Democratic Movement (UDM), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), African Independent Congress (AIC), the PAC, and Al Jama ah. In the statement, NFP Leader Shaik Emam expresses the party’s gratitude for the “commitment and willingness” displayed by other political parties in recognizing oppression and taking a stand on the inhumane, gruesome attacks on Palestinians.

The statement further highlights a crucial sentiment shared by Archbishop Desmond Tutu who said: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”.
“This is the situation in Palestine at the moment – we have a narrative that this is merely a conflict between two states. No. We have an occupier and are occupied. We have a colonizer and the colonized. We have the oppressor and the oppressed. You cannot be neutral when it comes to injustice.”

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