DA’s Helen Zille’s dodge is no personal quirk. It is a symptom of the DA’s very character.
Image: Supplied
By Iqbal Jassat
Does failure to act to halt the Zionist regime’s genocide in Gaza, make one complicit in Israel’s horrendously gruesome slaughter of Palestinians?
It certainly does and except for supporters of the apartheid regime, none can dispute it.
The weight of moral and legal responsibility to act decisively and without prevarication or language of deception associated with Zionist apologists, is indisputable.
South Africa was recently witness to the type of evasive language when Helen Zille, a senior political leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance was confronted by a journalist on whether her party believes a genocide is taking place in Gaza.
In an interview with Newzroom Afrika, Zille was pointedly referred to the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory which unequivocally pronounced that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Her response was not only evasive; it was an insult to the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians deliberately starved, forcefully displaced and mercilessly killed: “Genocide is a very big word and I haven’t been to Gaza, and I don’t know,” she told the broadcaster.
Zille’s refusal to admit and confirm that Israel is perpetrating a live-streamed genocide in Gaza and committing illegal acts with the specific intent of wiping out Palestinians, as reported by an array of credible human rights organisations across the world, has drawn sharp criticism – correctly so.
Moreover, it talks to the hypocrisy of her party the DA, who remain adamant in support of Israel and Zionism while deceptively oblivious of the groundbreaking UN Commission report headed by South Africa’s renowned judge Navi Pillay.
Pillay’s findings are categoric, expressed very definitely and firmly, without reservation or doubt that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Equally emphatic are the recommendations: the Commission urges Israel and all states to fulfil their legal obligations under international law to end the genocide and punish those responsible for it.
South Africa as an independent sovereign state is not exempted for in addition the Commission urges states to cease the transfer of arms and other equipment that may be used for the commission of genocidal acts to Israel.
States also have to ensure that individuals and corporations
in their territories and within their jurisdiction are not involved in aiding and assisting the commission of genocide or incitement to commit genocide.
And if indeed such groups are found through investigations to be involved in the genocide directly or indirectly, legal proceedings must follow.
Zionist organisations in South Africa have a terrible history of association with the settler colonial regime. Much of it is in the public domain and a lot more incriminating evidence is contained in various dossiers of complaints lodged with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), compiled by Palestinian solidarity movements including the Media Review Network.
Indeed as much as there has been public outrage at Zille’s evasive response on the question of genocide, civil society including media platforms should be disquieted by the lack of action on the part of the NPA to prosecute enablers of the genocide.
Pillay’s reminder in this context is apt: “Every day of inaction costs lives and erodes the credibility of the international community. All States are under a legal obligation to use all means that are reasonably available to them to stop the genocide in Gaza.”
“Israel has flagrantly disregarded the orders for provisional measures from the International Court of Justice and warnings from Member States, UN offices, human rights organisations and civil society groups, and continued the strategy of destruction of the Palestinians in Gaza,” said Pillay.
“The Commission finds that the Israeli authorities had no intention to change their course of actions. On the contrary, Israeli authorities have persisted and continued with their genocidal campaign in Gaza for almost two years now. Israel must immediately end the genocide in Gaza and comply fully with the orders for provisional measures of the International Court of Justice,” she added.
Unless we – state and civil society – act decisively and with determination to hold South African enablers and financiers of genocide, it would be naive to believe that the apartheid regime will voluntarily end its policy of starvation, lift the siege, ensure unimpeded access of humanitarian aid and halt the slaughter of Palestinians.
Iqbal Jassat
Executive Member
Media Review Network
Johannesburg
South Africa