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South Africa Targeted for Its  Solidarity with Palestine

By  Iqbal Jassat

The article titled “SA accused of prior knowledge in Hamas attack” (Star 4th March) refers to spurious allegations by a person linked to a dubious UK group, in what can best be described as fake news.

It appears from the report that a person named Justin Lewis has called for sanctions against South Africa over alleged Hamas ties, which the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has rightly dismissed as rubbish.

Though journalist Thabo Makwakwa does not provide any clue whether he had sight of any evidence, I am certain that none will be forthcoming simply because there is no truth to it.

It is incredulous that persons such as Lewis seek to undermine South Africa’s sovereign independence by  campaigning for sanctions against it and resorting to unproven allegations that echo Israel’s hostile stance.

Equally, it is absurd for a foreign entity based in the UK to write to Leo Brent Bozell III, the US ambassador nominated to South Africa calling to punish the country by means of sanctions.

That the punitive measures sought by Lewis corresponds with the hostile propaganda against South Africa emanating from the settler colonial regime’s notorious war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as the Trump administration, points to a malicious agenda.

His pro-Israel bias is clearly evident in the fact that his letter dated March 27, 2025, (seen by IOL) has positioned his campaign by claiming that South Africa’s legal actions against Israel are part of “a broader Hamas strategy”.

As ridiculous as it is, he does not stop there but goes on to claim that the South African government was aware of Hamas’ October 7 attacks before they were launched in 2023.

In addition he claimed that elements within DIRCO actively supported Hamas’ political strategy by facilitating access to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which Hamas, as a non-signatory, could not access.

Lewis is quoted as stating that “As part of a political strategy, preparations were made before the October 7 atrocity against Israel to set mechanisms in place for approaching the ICC and ICJ for protection from Israel’s anticipated response.”

In other words, his fanciful conspiracy theory rests on unproven allegations that the Ramaphosa government worked hand-in-glove with Hamas to not only conceal their October 7 operational plans but also to coordinate with them legal challenges mounted at the ICC and the ICJ.

While these wild claims may resonate among Israel’s fanatical zealots, they certainly will not among serious political analysts who like DIRCO’s Chrispin Phiri has done, will dismiss them as unverified and baseless.

To his credit, Phiri has raised concerns about Lewis’s credibility, noting his involvement in an investigation into a purported $2 trillion-a-year money-laundering operation linked to South African banks.

According to Makwakwa, Phiri criticised Lewis for accusing judges of facilitating money laundering without providing substantial evidence.

Regrettably the narrative peddled by Lewis and a host of conspiracy peddlers does not require evidence as far as Donald Trump is concerned.

Palestine Chronicle editor Ramzy Baroud reminds us that the Trump administration’s support for Israel is “payback for the financial backing it received from Netanyahu’s supporters in the US during the last election.”

And as for Britain, it “remains steadfast in its commitment to Tel Aviv, despite the political shifts in Westminster, thus continuing to align with US-Israeli interests while disregarding the wishes of its own population.”

Germany on the other hand is “driven by the guilt of its past crimes, while other Western governments pay lip service to human rights, all the while acting in ways that contradict their stated foreign policies.”

Does it mirror the dystopian world of George Orwell’s ‘1984’, where perpetual war is waged based on cynical and false assumptions, where “war is peace… freedom is slavery… and ignorance is strength.”?

In any event, with or without Lewis’s misguided efforts, Trump wasted no time targeting South Africa since coming into office. He hastily signed executive orders halting funding, imposed tariffs, responded to a pack of lies by a group of white Afrikaners and argued against the country’s ties to Iran and Palestine’s freedom struggle.

The bottom line is: you will be punished for opposition to Israel.

Iqbal Jassat

Executive Member

Media Review Network

Johannesburg

South Africa

 

 

Iqbal Jassat
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